Media Blitz

I have previously blogged about being a morning talk radio junkie. I believe this stems from years growing up listening to KGO during breakfast. The regularity with which a morning news radio station runs is great. I knew I needed to be in the car by the traffic and on the highway by the weather t make it to class on time.

Nowadays I still enjoy the regular news, traffic and weather patterns on the radio. And some days I even like the morning local talk radio guy. His issues are generally more local and he has a sensibility about things that I find is parallel to my own thinking.

But I cannot listen when people call in just to argue. I cannot listen when callers and the host begin calling names or throwing insults. For what is it worth, I haven't ever heard the host call names, but it is his show and he does sometimes just shut down the caller when he disagrees. I hate when that happens.

I find that I watch less and less TV news--though I like the visual seven day weather forecast...because, let's face it, sunshine graphics seven days in a row make me happy. But the nature of the news stories day in and day out break my heart.

Again this week I heard of a mother who killed her two children then strapped them into car seats and rolled her vehicle into a river.

WHY do things like this continue to happen?! Susan Whatshername from the Carolinas that killed her boys by driving them into the lake and then reported them abducted years ago should have been the last of that kind of wacko to be reported. She SHOULD have never done that, but crazy people are a growing demographic on our population. Now there is this one.

The reports of abuse, negligence, terror, and mistreatment of any kind breaks my heart when I hear about it. I know it is happening, and me not hearing it on the news isn't going to make it go away. But I wonder how much more might be avoided if another crazy person's 15 minutes of fame wasn't plastered on every news channel every day for a week.

On the other hand, maybe the more we know about this kind of evil, the more we can look out for the potential abuse and try to deter it. I don't know. I hope there is SOME upside to the more and more common reports of hurt and pain, and abuse.

The whole topic makes me not want to watch the news on TV, and the radio news is so easy to shut out of my mind...with just a push of a button. Too bad the real stuff isn't turned off that easily.