2004 April | When minds collide

I’ve got NBC News in my hotelroom now…and i’m watchin’ it…and i’m thinkin’….”If people in the States watch this crap….no wonder they’re so fucked up!”….I’d rarely seen something so….scary on a news channel. I could hardly tell if I was watchin’ news or a Natural Born Killers rerun. The “anchor” (~~I’ll write down his name next time I see the mo’fo’~~ Jim Cramer) was talkin’ like it was the end of the fuckin’ world and feels EVERYONE SHOULD HEAR WHAT HE HAS TO SAY ABOUT DIET PILLS THAT DON’T WORK!!!!! Cut to a scene of fat women, then another cut to a bottle of pills with a cheap animation overlay of a SKULL panning towards the screen !! The guy was so excited to tell this story to this world, that his face was all red and his eyes nearly popped out! OooOoooo….scary fuckin’ stuff I tell you. It was all so exaggerated to the point that I found myself laughin’ and thinkin’ “the hell with South Park; i’ll watch this shit for entertainment.”
THEN…a debate. The “anchor” (eyes now totally popped out) introduces the panel. These people were soooo excited to be on this SHOW panel that some just giggled (”Hi !!! hah *giggle giggle*”) when their names were called…These people are the supposed “experts” on any random subject and field existant in the known universe. Now, I can’t remember what the debate was about exactly….but I do remember thinkin’….”hmm….shouldn’t there be at least…TWO SIDES TO THIS DEBATE ?!”. They had live links to Washington DC, Tallahassee, Walla Walla…etc…etc..Yet NONE of the people on the “panel” ware for the law they were talkin’ about…they were all against…That’s not a news debate….that’s called propaganda ! They were like “Yeah, this here law sure does suck.” and “Thank you for inviting me Tom, yes, I agree with Jim it sucks. Jo ?”, “Yes, I agree it sucks, too”, “Well, that’s all we have time for tonight. Thank you for trusting in us..your lord, saviour and only view to the world…NBC…all hail George W Bush…Goodnight”.
Well, not in so many words but you get the idea…It was just weird watchin’ something like that on a news channel. Now I totally understand what Michael Moore is talkin’ about when he writes about US media inciting fear and hate in people. The message the news show tried to convey was pretty simple. “IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD !! IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD !! PANIC !! PANIC !!…but trust that your government is doing everything fix that and today they did so by doing this and that…”.etc..etc…It was like the story of the boy who cried wolf, only in this case he hired someone to play wolf.
And when I said “scary”…i didn’t mean the show was scary in itsself….Knowing that people (that are not exactly known for being well thinkers) watch shows like this and are so easily manipulated by it….THAT is scary.