A culture of super sizing

Our culture is one that emphasizes bigger is better. Super size meals, gargantuan SUV cars, and hundreds of channels of TV.

This axiom is especially true in regards to news coverage. We have so many reporters, channels, and hours to fill that any significant event becomes the TV spotlight for as long as the networks think they can milk it for. Sometimes it's good for reflecting, as in Reagans funeral. However overtly 'good' news coverage is the exception. For every story of something meaningful, there are 20 about nasty events.

Last month I was subjected to the news channels devoting literally hundreds of hours to whether GW was where he should've been 30 years ago. Likewise, I had to suffer through endless debate regarding Kerry and his medal tossing agenda back when I was 6 years old.

There's an old Don Henley song that I thought was passe at the time, but seems more and more accurate as I grow older and more jaded. Here are some lyrics from Dirty Laundry:

"I make my living off the Evening News
Just give me something-something I can use
People love it when you lose,
They love dirty laundry"

Is it that we love bad news? Do we enjoy pure garbage? I have on occasion listened to Howard Stern. While his show is entertaining, it's brainless fodder with no real meat or redeeming value to it. This type of desire for 'shock' seems to sell. However is this our nature, or are we products of our environment?

In India today, many young people strive to be Doctors and Engineers and knowledge is their goal. When I was young I wanted to be a fighter pilot, mainly due to watching too many gunfighter movies, as well as Top Gun. Why do so few US kids strive to be doctors and engineers? Is the dirty laundry and sensationalistic lifestyle promoted by our media overriding our history of intellectual gains?

We have moved to being a drive-through, super-size, A.D.D. society who lives on pessimism. As we look upon the death of Reagan, the great communicator and optimist, perhaps we can shift gears and move a bit away from the death and pain and see the whole picture? Then again the media does love dirty laundry, and ratings are more important then being right...