Depressed by ‘the press’.
Posted by Big John on October 23, 2006
One of the nice things about being retired is that I can take my time in the morning getting out of bed, have a leisurely breakfast, relax over a cup of coffee and enjoy reading the newspaper.
Well, perhaps ‘enjoy’ is the wrong word to use these days, as the papers seem to be full of ‘doom and gloom’, with reports of … More deaths in Iraq … Continued fierce fighting in Afghanistan … The Korean nuclear threat … Predictions of racial violence in the UK … Chaos and waste in the National Health Service … Gordon Brown and his ‘stealth taxes’ … ’Untouchable’ teenage tearaways … The closure of rural post offices … Binge drinking yobs … and even the killing of poor bloody whales by Iceland.
Need I go on ? … Shall I elaborate ? … No, I don’t think so, for it would mean too much repetition of names like Bush and Blair and the continual use of words such as … ’Diversity’ … ‘Veil’ … ’Muslim’ … ‘Multiculturalism’ … and … ‘bloody!’
Another thing that always pisses me off with the papers is that they are full of stories about people that I couldn’t care less about and would be very happy if I never heard of them again, including … Paul McCartney and his ‘poor abused’ wife … Madonna and her ‘must have’ African baby … Kate Moss and her ‘dipstick’ of a boyfriend … and of course, the bloody ‘royal family’ !
One story in the news at the moment did almost bring a smile to my face, for it seems that you can now visit an empty art gallery with ‘blank’ walls and ‘imagine’ your own pictures.
Perhaps I should open a blank sheet of paper after breakfast …
….. and imagine my own news.
gawilli said
We have a morning newspaper ritual much like yours. While on short vacation the last few days I was paperless, on purpose. Although we bought the local papers I avoided all but the entertainment section – a second holiday of sorts. This morning the headlines were of a 16 year old gunned down on his own front porch. Welcome home. I believe you an I could do very well with a blank sheet of paper.
ade said
Good idea, John.
.
I haven’t taken a newspaper in about 10 years, I cancelled my local rag two years ago, I hardly ever watch the news on telly and mostly get my information from the BBC news website. The way the News media works gets right on my goat.
.
Most papers and telly news seem intent on either scaring the crap out of us or dazzling us with the fabulous lives of meaningless celebrities just to keep us from actually *thinking* about what’s REALLY happening around us.
(Dons tinfoil hat).
mjd said
I am wondering if they charge admission to actually look at the art gallery. If they charge admission and people pay, what a gold mine. The emperor must be wearing clothes. This being said the idea of a blank newspaper does have some appeal.
briggy said
heh.
maybe its as paul simon wrote “weather report is the only news i need”
jayward said
Well now it looks like I can finally comment on your blog. Just updated my browser to Firefox 2.0 and its cleared up a lot of the bugs. Good to see that you are hanging in there.
JWL
p.s. Chicken little is alive and well and is the main editor at most of the corporate media. ha ha
Big John said
Nice to hear from you again John-Ward.
Maria said
I used to like to wake up, grab a cup of coffee and watch the morning news. However, it soon becamea too depressing way of starting the day. Now I grab my coffee and watch old comedy re-runs. This may be sticking my head in the sand, but even the coffee tastes better with a laugh or two.
Terri said
This was a great one, John. I’m still chuckling. But I have to agree with you on the news…talk about depressing. I catch the highlights on the Today Show and watch the nightly national news…but I haven’t read a hard copy newspaper in ages. Just the NY Times and Washington Post online…It’s the same old thing over and over.