Cable Unplugged

Okay -- to introduce myself -- I am a cable television news junkie. I don't read news as much as listen to it (which might be the source of my problem). But like most people, I have to make a living. My benefit is that I can do so out of my home.

I make my living as a writer but, not to worry, you've never heard of me. If you have ever needed a business plan, you may have come across my site advertised on the web. I am not making a plug for that business. Instead, I'm making a plug for unplugging your television and not listening to the pundits out there in "punditocracy-land," -- that conventional news media -- the Fourth Estate, borne of a constitutional right to allow anyone to express his or her views.

That constitution had inherent flaws in interpretation, as we well know -- even the drafters of it truly did not believe that all men were equal. The problem, as I see it, is that the Fourth Estate has now turned into a Royal Pundit-ocracy. The media personalities such as Bill O'Reilly, Chris Matthews, Shawn Hannity, Bill Moyers, Keith Olberman, to name only a few -- have graced the television screens for so long now, and for so many hours per day, that each has become a whole behemoth unto themselves, who are the real crowners of the kings and queens. And we the people? Oh, that was just a nice sounding phrase. They're not playing to us. They're talking to each other.

I am here to remind them of for whom they work. And they should be schooled on a daily basis. Just as lawyers must be reminded one hour each year, in taking Continuing Legal Education courses, of their duty to be ethical, so too, must the media be reminded of its obligation - to REPORT. They are not the news themselves. They are supposed to be mouthpieces only for telling us the news. Period. We don't need to know of their political views, their opinions, or their personal backgrounds for that matter They are servants of the people. And we can mow their lawn -- by turning them off.

As time permits, I will visit myself to give examples of how the media has become a monster unto itself -- and although the monster is hanging onto the Empire State Building, like the media, with its satellite antennae mesmerizing us, and making us follow their every word - I caution the reader. STOP. LOOK. LISTEN -- YOU ARE NOT A MORON. They know no more than you know, because we're all reading the same information from the same sources. They have a bullhorn, however, and give us their opinions every minute, every hour, and every day of the year, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on..... SHUTUP, MEDIA! We're trying to think.

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