Thanks, News, For Wasting My Time

Y'know, my life isn't quite what it used to be. I used to have a LOT more time to just sit and watch TV or sit and read a book without having to deal with a shitload of distractions. I find myself unable to not touch my smartphone while I'm watching TV, even if it's just to play a few levels of Angry Birds or Super Stickman Golf 2 (NOW WITH HATS!). So my time is a more valuable commodity than it was 6 years ago. So when I watch local news, I want local news, or I'm going to turn the damn channel. That's what makes me so aggravated that an Alabama anchor was proposed to...LIVE ON AIR...last weekend. I was glad to see the folks at WGN were just as angry as I was... Then again, what is WGN doing??? How is bitching about that stuff NEWS? (and while I'm on the subject, just because something is NEW doesn't necessarily mean it's NEWS!) But I digress. Let me get back to my point. I've worked with reporters and anchors who are shocked and stunned when they get overtly personal/flirtatious/threatening letters and emails from viewers who feel like they KNOW the people who work on TV. Hell, I've talked to assholes on the phone who seem to have no problem telling the people on air how they should be doing their job. That takes a LOT of cajones. And you know why it's so easy for them to do it, besides just being assholes? It's because the anchors and reporters MAKE it so easy for viewers to feel like they're part of their lives. By pulling shit like getting proposed to on air. Now, to be fair, it's clear the Alabama anchor didn't plan that herself...but other people involved in the news product DID. There were at least a producer and probably some anchors who got involved in setting the whole thing up for this dumb guy who is now going to be JEALOUS by every viewer who walks up to his fiancée, acting like they know her. It all starts somewhere. And most times, it starts with the on-air talent. So how about we just go back to the old days of Rather, Brokaw and Cronkite? When I just did not give TWO SHITS ABOUT WHAT THEY HAD FOR DINNER OR WHAT THEIR WEEKEND PLANS ARE AND JUST GIVE ME THE FUCKING NEWS!!! IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK??? *exhales* Enough about the visual media. How about the impending death of print media? I was fascinated by this former reporter's blog about why she left news. And I realized that all media is something that's physically and emotionally exhausting with no big payoff. It's frustrating. To walk into the same newsroom every day, sometimes for more than 40 hours a week, without financial compensation but instead the promise of a "comp day" that I know I'll never use because I feel like my newscast will crumble to the ground without my presence. (Editor's note: it was about this time that I launched into an offensive and unnecessary tirade about my job that didn't make me feel any better AND hurt a friend. So I felt it better to remove it, treat it as "water under the bridge" and let us move ahead with our friendship. We've forgiven each other and we're treating this as a growing experience. So let's just go right ahead with the better reason to tune into this week's blog) So, please to enjoy a little All-Star Celebrity Bowling: They're turning that into a TV show. Y'know, I might consider watching it. With my smartphone in my non-remote hand. -B-