Finding the Needle in the Haystack

I am not a big fan of the media these days. I fervently believe that the 24-hour news network cycle was the beginning of the end of civilized discourse in our society. First CNN Headline News, followed by Fox, and now it’s many competitors. I admit, being a night owl, that it is nice to have access to news and information late at night or early in the morning when I get home from work. But the detriments outweigh the benefits. There is simply not enough news generated worldwide to occupy every second and every minute of 24-hour news coverage. The modus operandi of most networks seems to be to obtain a provocative video image or clip of a story. Said networks then loop the clip and play it over and over again for their captive audiences. (How many times did we watch the World Trade Center buildings collapse on September 11th and 12th, 2001? How many times did we hear Howard Dean scream in the 2004 presidential campaign?) Very little truthful or accurate information ends up accompanying the report. In most cases, the story is incredibly hyped up. The whole "If it bleeds, it leads" argument builds ratings. Car chases on freeways being tracked in real time by helicopters, hostage situations with the SWAT team and sharpshooters in position behind a wall, barricaded subjects with guns, and on and on.

As a rule, I try not to watch news from local television or cable. It seems like very little useful information comes out of any story. When the story about a tiger escaping from the San Francisco Zoo and mauling a local teenager came out recently, the local media had news footage of the dead tiger covered with a blanket and police milling around. That was it for a good 24 hours. There is still incredible speculation going on about what really happened, but most good news seems to come from print sources locally.

While this works for me, it most certainly does not work for my parents. FOX News is a constant presence in my parent's home. Whenever I visit, it blares from at least one if not two or three TV sets around the house. I try to take into account that politically I am at the opposite end of the spectrum as my parents and this does influence my take on things. Still, the ridiculously hyped excrement that FOX creates and packages as news for delivery by 1970s Bob Barker era models/spokeswomen/news readers (what do you call them?) is swallowed eagerly by my Mom in particular. I received a slightly frantic e-mail just yesterday. "Mark, the news about the weather in California is terrible. Are you ok? Please call me and let me know that you are ok." I have had numerous discussions with my mom about trying to not watch so much news, but she does not listen well. That combined with her special talent for worrying about her children can be a deadly combination. (For the record, San Francisco and the East Bay have had some rain. No flooding, no mud slides, no earthquakes...just greener grass and some puddles.)

Personally, I take most of my information from the Internet, NPR, the BBC and I digitally record Charlie Rose from PBS which covers some current news, but delves into a broad range of topics from science to theatre to film to literature just to name a few. I suppose I filter the news that I take in to subjects that interest me and I discard the rest. (For example, I have next to no knowledge of any kind of sports. Not a big area of interest to this gay boy.) Trust is not something that comes easy to Gen X'ers. After the whole WMD debacle and the GW era of being considered an enemy of the state if you dared to question any kind of government policy, my instinct to trust has shrunk, not grown. My position these days is that absolute truth does not exist. This is a world of gray, not of black and white. Everyone has a point of view and truth to the individual will always be colored by our previous experiences in life. In seeking out truth (or the closest thing to it), one needs to consider a lot of sources. Not too dissimilar from finding a needle in a haystack.

The inspiration behind this veiled rant is the political coverage of the last few days. For some asinine reason, a good majority of the states pushed up their political primaries this year in an effort to have more of a say in who the nominees for the presidency are. While it seems that these moves were innocent in nature, they have really (excuse my French) fucked over the presidential race for the citizens of the United States this year. In previous years, the presidential race began with primaries in either February or March. The state primaries were then spread throughout the year until the conventions in the summer at which time a nominee was named. As time has passed, states have become greedy for a piece of the financial windfall the states with early primaries have historically enjoyed. Fast forward to this year. Iowa was forced to move its caucus to January 4 to keep its first in the nation status. New Hampshire then was forced to move its first in the nation primary to today, January 8th. The entire nominating process will be almost certainly wrapped up by Tsunami Tuesday, February 5th. On this day, 24 states are scheduled to hold either primaries or caucuses. So the entire political race for the nomination has boiled down to a one month campaign with very little opportunity for any candidate to be able to make up ground or recover from an early loss in a key state. After February, what the hell are we going to talk about until November? Nine months of political attacks, mud slinging, accusations, and ridiculous amounts of money being thrown about with little to show at the end.

Since the Iowa caucuses four days ago, the candidates have been campaigning nonstop across New Hampshire in an effort to shore up support and gain some ground today in the primaries. Hillary Clinton has had a rough few days, breaks down, and nearly cries at a campaign event. First off, who ever thought we would see Hillary with any sort of emotional display? There is no question that both she and Bill must be extremely disappointed in her performance in Iowa. Unfortunately, with the primaries so close together this year, there is little time for her to change strategy or make up ground. Combine that with 96 hours to save your political future and about 6 hours of sleep in four days and presto, you have a meltdown. I am not a Clinton fan. Personally, they both rub me the wrong way. I also strongly feel that if Bill had done the honorable thing and resigned after the Lewinsky scandal broke, Gore would have been a shoo in for president in 2000 and the map of the world would look vastly different today. Still, I am not going there. My point here is, Hillary's minor breakdown was covered by at least six different news sources that I happened to catch in a period of twelve hours. All of the television personalities are predicting a big win for Obama today. It almost seems like the media is willing it to happen through their coverage. I have made no secret that I think Obama is the best guy in the race and I do hope he wins. But between the media saturation and the shortened nomination process this year, I strongly feel that the American people are getting shortchanged. I wish we could return to a simpler and more level headed time when the nomination process had a more reasonable timetable. Over the course of several months, the process seemed less harried and more thorough. Does it seem right that we will choose the two nominees for the highest office in our land in a matter of four weeks? I am convinced that the process needs (and deserves) more time. The presidency of the United States is not a decision that should be taken lightly.

Alright, I am off my soapbox; well, until the next post I suppose. Hope you all have a great week. Cuidate.