A small piece of advice (from a guy with a lot of scars because he failed to follow this advice) [View All]

[WilliamPitt]

Hey, folks.

I turned on CNN for the moment of silence.

Then I turned it off. And I'm leaving it off.

I lay a large share of the blame for this tragedy on the "mainstream" media. I will be God damned if I give those I hold responsible the power to jerk me around mentally and emotionally.

Not today.

There is a great impulse, one we all share, to have a news station on at all times when something terrible or tragic or terrifying has taken place. It has been thus since Kennedy was shot, and then Oswald was shot on live television. 9/11. A shuttle disaster. The Gulf oil catastrophe. Columbine. You name it, we were all watching it on a TV news network.

Events like this is the bread and butter of TV news. It's how they cement "popular opinion," even among those who should know better.

I'm not going to let those bastards in my head today. I strongly urge you to do the same.

If I want/need to find out what is going on, I'll read it. Here, Truthout, TPM, whatever mainstream newspapers don't make me want to put my head through a wall.

I'll read. The TV people can go take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut on a gravel driveway.

I usually have to watch that shit - pat of the job - but not today. I have seen enough DU threads with people going "DID YOU HEAR WHAT THAT FUCKING ASSBAG SHITSTAIN FUCKBALL JUST SAID ON CNNMSNBCFOXCBS WHAAARRRGARBLE GOD DAMN IT NOW I AM INSAAAAAANE!!!1111ELEVENS!11!1!" to get the definite sense that the wonderful "mainstream" TV news industry will just have to muddle through without my patronage today.

Because fuck them, that's why. I'm not letting them into my head or my heart today. I strongly urge you to likewise deny them access

I have an article coming out later today which states my opinion on the matter at hand. I'll keep reading, learning more about what happened, and do my mourning without some simpering corporate mouthpiece pissing me off even more.

Fuck them. Turn it off. We can all hang out here together.

Who's got the Jameson? We can raise a toast to the living and the dead, and mourn together, unpolluted.