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

[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.

[Goblinmonger]

1. Here's why I keep reading your posts.

There are times when I hate what you have to say. Then there are time, like this, when you speak truth to me. There are also time, usually in Sports, where you make me laugh my ass off. During the times I hate what you have to say, I try to remember that I didn't even like everything Hunter S. had to say.

Were I in Boston, I'd buy you a shot of Jameson (after getting my Boloco fix, but that's a different issue).

[WilliamPitt]

26. Thank you, sir. That was a really, really nice thing to say.

I have always respected your stuff, even in disagreement.

:toast:

[molly77]

45. William Pitt

I appreciate your sentiments and voice.

I gave up TV because it was so programmed that it had gotten boring.

[mindwalker_i]

30. Wish you were in the bay area

I'd buy you a bottle (for multiple shots).

Although I realize you can't do this, I do not have a TV and am much better off for it. There's not a lot that I like and can usually get it off of Amazon. But more to this point, the news doesn't provide actual information any more. It provides propaganda to who(m)ever is paying top dollar, which are usually Republicans. DU has much better coverage of news and the editorials are lightyears ahead.

[xiamiam]

75. exactly..best source of news right here..tv is propaganda...nt

[snooper2]

2. based on the thread title

I thought your advice was to be safe and only walk on the rafters in the attic...


Because going through the drywall sucks ass :rofl:

[dave29]

3. Raising glass n/t

[Tatiana]

4. Completely agree.

Especially the part about the MSM cementing public opinion with their coverage during national tragedies.

No thanks; I'll pass and continue to use logic in my reasoning.

:toast:

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Welcome to my world, Will.

[Richardo]

6. I'm the opposite - I NEVER watch the news after a major disaster because they obviously know fuckall

....plus, no matter how serious, horrendous and/or tragic it is, they're still pimping ads. Fuck that. I want someone to tell me news, not sell me news.

I started this practice in 1986 after Chernobyl, when the first reports bemoaned the tens of thousands instantly killed by the meltdown. (It was around 50).

[progressoid]

7. Jameson? Jenna?

Oh, wrong one. :blush:


I too turned off the TV. Listening to some interesting Mexican covers of Police songs instead:

Outlandos D'Americas: A Rock En Espanol Tribute To The Police
http://www.amazon.com/Outlandos-DAmericas-Espanol-Tribute-Police/dp/B00000AETO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294677875&sr=1-1

[bemildred]

8. Yes, TV makes you stupid, and when you listen it gives them credibility.

Where you focus your attention matters.

[warrior1]

9. Thanks Will

I needed to read this. I'm not turning on the news. I need a break from this.

[xchrom]

10. ...

:toast:

[PDJane]

11. I don't own a television.

The reason for that apparent oversight is the point you have just made.

Thank you.

[whatchamacallit]

12. I agree. Just say no to perception management. (nt)

[eppur_se_muova]

72. "Perception management" -- there's an Orwellian phrase.

I DUgled it -- interesting to see where it originated.

[AspenRose]

13. That's excellent advice

[pnorman]

14. I've been off TV for about fifteen years.

But I've also been off booze for twice that long, so don't look to me for that Jameson!

[mmonk]

15. Recommended with prejudice.

[Gregorian]

16. I try to live by this rule- Only do non-commercial.

I could never figure out how people could remain corrosion free while listening to loud shouty commercials. I remember going into a store, and on the checkout counter there was a list of radio stations, and it was a poll where you would put a check mark. The most amazing radio station in the world had one check. It is a radio station where one could hear everything from Billy Holiday to the Ass Baboons of Venus. An ecclectic mix of music that one could listen to and never hear a repeat. And that's what I've been doing for 30 years. A parade of the creativity of the musical world's minds. There was a mass of check marks for the worst crap you can listen to that repeats Stairway To Heaven, over and over, interspersed with commercial after commercial. People loved that lousy commercial poison.

This isn't just a simple reply. This is at the heart of America's issues. It's Ronald Reagan. He was a commercial president. He did the commercials, and they knew he could do theirs in office. It's the brain corrosion that the majority in this country have undergone.

I know you watch for purposes other than those which the average person watches. But I need to post this here, since I don't see this subject addressed often enough.

MacDonald's is poison. CNN is poison. America is poisoned. Is anyone hearing me? Processed food is poison.

It's just the same as someone who craves nicotine. I did. And then I saw people who were dying, and I decided I didn't want that. What does it take for America to want sanity? To want a fresh state of being?

Was it Ashcroft who clothed the statues? Yet they find it just fine to drop depleted Uranium on human beings, causing massive disruption to their health.

Why isn't Amy Goodman on national tv? Why isn't Noam Chomsky on national tv? Why isn't there a channel where we can learn Calculus, biology, music theory, or anything else that would build this society rather than corrode it at the benefit of a few men making big bucks?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

17. Absolutely right.

It's a little early for me to be drinking Jameson, but otherwise I'm with you...

We will mourn together, unpolluted. Perfect.

:hug:

[WilliamPitt]

18. The sun is over the yardarm somewhere in the world

;)

[CTyankee]

50. My mother used to say "It's 5 o'clock somewhere."

She never really used to drink in the day, but she liked to sit down with a drink before dinner. BAck in the day, I remember her drinking something called "highballs."

[chervilant]

19. Well, now...

...do my mourning without some simpering corporate mouthpiece pissing me off even more.

Those among us who haven't figured out that the Corporate Megalomaniacs have usurped our global economy and now drive every significant GLOBAL economic decision had better get a clue soon. The Corporate Megalomaniacs are sitting in their insular and well-appointed mansions or boardrooms, rubbing their hands together and chuckling with glee. Overpopulation? No problem! A few well-placed rabble-rousers vomiting divisive hate-mongering and fear-mongering rhetoric, and people die. Problem solved.

Despite an urge to point out more ways the Corporate Megalomaniacs control and dehumanize us (how about radical income inequity? ...enhanced interrogation techniques?), I will simply adjure: read Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. REALLY read it! We the People are smart and resourceful. Surely, we can figure out how to throw off the shackles of this global economic slavery. A good first step will be rejecting divisive, hate-mongering and fear-mongering rhetoric--in ALL venues.

[ScreamingMeemie]

20. Right now, I'm hanging on to that happy feeling that comes with a Packer playoff win.

And the 5 days of a calm stomach that come after it.

[WilliamPitt]

23. Check out my Marshawn Lynch run-back post in the Sports forum.

Trust me.

Should be at or near the top of the page.

:)

[ScreamingMeemie]

35. That's hilarious...

One of my daughter's friends is spending the winter with us and he's not much of a football fan, but he is a Mario brothers video game geek. This could do the trick in bringing him around. "Just set the plays to Mario music".

[WilliamPitt]

37. Glad to help.

:)

[Fire1]

21. The Sherriff seems to share those sentiments,

albeit not in those exact words.

[firehorse]

22. People watch -to get their hits of adrenyline the same way coke addicts get their hits doing coke

Watching the news is literally a physically addictive act. You watch, your body gets full of adrenalyne and the body's production of drugs is just as powerful as an drug taken internally.

There should be a warning on news like FOX and CNN the way cigerette labels and alcohol have labels. I'm almost beginning to believe it should be rated R or X.

[slackmaster]

24. K and fuckin' R!

:kick:

[northamericancitizen]

25. + 1

[Matariki]

27. No TV here - and WAY happier for it.

Reading the news vs. watching on television is a much different experience - one that seems better for the brain and general psychic health.

[blackspade]

28. K&R!

[Daemonaquila]

29. *Toasts with Jameson's*

Yup. It's all off. I was traveling yesterday, and everywhere there was CNN trying to create some way to fill time talking about the extreme tragedy that this or that person was killed, interviewing roommate's dead sister's ex-boyfriends, saying crazy crap about the shooter's politics... It's off, and it's staying off. Working on 3 websites, cleaning up finances, etc. today will go just ducky with a glass of fine Irish - and silence.

[SalviaBlue]

31. I gave up listening to them awhile back.

I used to have Good Morning America on in the mornings while getting ready for work. Their first segment would usually be about the current political issue. They basically parrot the right wing meme and rehabilitate any right wing blunder and spew the "both sides do it" bullshit. I don't watch anymore.

This morning I watched. And I heard Jake Tapper say when addressing possibility of Sarah Palin's influence in this... "there is no evidence that he (Loughner) had ever heard of Sarah Palin."

Never heard of Sarah Palin? Tapper/MSM is FUBAR.

[SayitAintSo]

32. Bravo - just turned it off - How can we make them TELL THE TRUTH ?

Just watched Zinn's 2009 documentary - it shows how the only way things change for the better is for the common folk to take to the streets and stand up and be heard in large numbers. I agree with you on the media being the main problem - they don't 'TELL THE TRUTH' about right wing extremism.

[defendandprotect]

42. Turning OFF the TV .... is the beginning of a Revolution .... !!! Do it together -- !!

[BetsysGhost]

33. WilliamPitt

Somebody's got to keep keeping a record of their lies. Since you usually have to listen and are taking the day off

I got your back.

I'm listening.

[pauldp]

34. Thank you, thank you Will.

:toast:

[emilyg]

36. Hey cat lover - I'm with you.

[sad sally]

38. from the Merchant of Venice:

"I hold the world as but world, Gratiano.
A stage where every man must play a part."

and from Thomas Hood:

"The world--it is a wilderness.
Where tears are hung on every tree."

peace

[Auggie]

39. A big K&R!

[Dappleganger]

40. Good for you.

Time for mine to be turned off as well.

[defendandprotect]

41. You want a Revolution...? This is the way to do it -- turn the TVs off and leave them off ....

You can tune in to KO and Maddow -- to Schultz --

but turn the whole rest of it OFF!!!

That will give you a Revolution -- believe me!!

And, for those who still ask why we don't just try to change them ....

many of us worked on that decades ago -- they need a state to catapult the

right wing proapganda and ears to listen to it -

Don't be that audience!!!


:)

[Cleita]

43. I have Jameson (my favorite) and will join you in a toast.

I had to turn CNN off this weekend when Wolf Blitzer and his sycophants were spinning so hard to protect Sarah Palin, I nearly threw up. I hardly ever watch it anyway, but they were the only news on then. I will never turn it on again though.

[av8rdave]

44. No Jameson's, but I have a GREAT bottle of tequila from Mexico

Here's to what you said!

:toast:

[soryang]

46. I only watch television news during hurricane season

Once I ascertain the weather, I shut it off. Why anyone watches television news is beyond me, it's garbarge, has been for decades. I pretty much stopped watching television in 1996. If you watch political crap on tv, you are a follower.

[bertman]

47. Agree completely. REC. About halfway through "Generation of Swine".

Love Hunter S. Thompson.

His writings back in the mid-80's are just as pertinent now as they were then. It's scary seeing how the same shit happens over and over yet we TeeVee brainwashed Americans just don't 'get it'.

[Poll_Blind]

48. "Because fuck them, that's why." +1 n/t

PB

[Supersedeas]

49. the Media and the Astroturfing Health Reform opponents created the stardom of shockjocks

responsible for the vitriol at the town hall meeting and now this.

[Duval]

51. Amen, WRP! n/t

[patrice]

52. I don't watch anything on there but TCM & CSPAN. Haven't for a few years now. Don't need them.

[Scruffy1]

53. Don't have a TV-and never will

[mike_c]

54. I turned 'em off twenty years ago and haven't EVER regretted it....

As I relate from time to time around here, I very occasionally watch television, MAYBE once or twice a year, like when I'm staying in a motel or something. When you do it like that, the blinders come off, big time. When you rarely ever see television, your expectations are not shaped by the medium itself, and it REALLY looks stupid, more often than not. I'm serious-- turn that noise off for six months or a year and THEN take another look. You'll be utterly appalled.

[TBF]

55. I only turn on the TV for sports and Glee. nt

[WilliamPitt]

56. Glee is a Fox show

HERETIC!!11111111!!!!!!!1!1!

(sez the Family Guy fan)

( :P )

[TBF]

57. lol - and it took weeks of my husband pleading before I'd watch it.

He is a tv junkie - so it lives in his den.

[Frustratedlady]

58. I shut CNN off 2 years ago. Never have watched FOX. My sympathies to...

those who must, as part of their profession.

Love your columns. Peace!

[proud patriot]

59. Tool has a song all about this "Vicarious"

Tool
Vicarious video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUGbu6Jcrmw

Tool
Vicarious lyrics

Eye on the TV
Cause tragedy thrills me
Whatever flavor
It happens to be

Like:
"Killed by the husband"
"Drowned by the ocean"
"Shot by his own son"
"She used a poison in his tea
And kissed him goodbye"
That's my kind of story.
It's no fun 'til someone dies

Don't look at me like
I am a monster
Frown out your one face
But with the other
Stare like a junkie
Into the TV
Stare like a zombie
While the mother holds her child,
Watches him die
Hands to the sky crying,
"Why, oh why!"

Cause I need to watch things die
From a distance
Vicariously, I
Live while the whole world dies
You all need it too - don't lie.

Why can't we just admit it?
Why can't we just admit it?
We won't give pause until the blood is flowin'
Neither the brave nor bold
Will write as the stories told
We won't give pause until the blood is flowin'

I need to watch things die
From a good safe distance
Vicariously, I
Live while the whole world dies
You all feel the same so
Why can't we just admit it

Blood like rain, come down
Drum on grave and ground

Part vampire
Part warrior
Carnivore and voyeur
Stare at the transmitter
Synched to the death rattle...

La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la-lie (x4)

Credulous at best your desire to believe in
Angels in the hearts of men
Pull your head on out
Your hippy beliefs and give a listen
Shouldn't have to say it all again

The universe is hostile
So impersonal
Devour to survive
So it is, so it's always been...

We all feed on tragedy
It's like blood to a vampire

Vicariously, I
Live while the whole world dies
Much better you than I.

[xiamiam]

60. trust me on this one..we are supposed to turn it off..

folks dont want to do it...think they must have it..but i've been living for more than one year and one half without tv...it will never go on again

at this juncture, i ignore almost all the threads on du that reference limbaugh, hannity, scarbag, etc..

i can tell who is listening to whom by the conclusion they come to within hours of an event..it is unnatural for multitudes to reach the same talking points within hours..yet it goes on daily

we are supposed to think for ourselves..instead, we are told what to think..what to buy...who to like...what is hot...what to watch...and when you slowly back away from it, you can see how programmed we ALL are

the only way to do that, is turn it off...of course, you can watch anything you want online..and i do..but, not as a steady diet..those people make money by telling us what their masters tell them to say..or how to say it

wake up..its time

[zappaman]

61. Easiest RECOMMEND ever

Well done!

[Amaril]

62. WHAAARRRGARBLE, indeed! n/t

[Vinnie From Indy]

63. Cheers!

n/t

[hay rick]

64. Only reason to turn on CNN- morbid curiosity.

I occasionally turn them on briefly to check out the spin- not the news. Haven't considered CNN a serious news source since they hired Richard Butler as "ambassador in residence" to sell WMD as a casus belli for the invasion of Iraq.

[InvisibleTouch]

65. I haven't really had TV for about 10 years.

That is, if I really really feel the need to watch something, I do so at someone else's house, but I feel no impulse to watch the nightly spewfest of negative-news. All of those big events you mentioned from recent years, I learned about them online, and discussed them online. I get my daily current events from the web.

You're right in that every televised story is sensationalized to bring about a desired emotional response, and I've seen people jerked around by this and addicted to the adrenaline rush, under the guise of "needing to stay informed about what's happening in the world." If you *read* the story, you get to form your *own* emotional response, not the one the broadcasters want you to have.

[UpInArms]

66. I get one channel - it's local and fuzzy - I don't watch it

I read.. a lot

the rest of them - they don't exist

I watch

everyone react to everyone else

I say

quit

Live

ignore

respond to the world

the words we speak - hear - read - write

those will tell the tale

[StarsInHerHair]

67. I quit watching when W lied on tv & the news guys & gals didn't correct him

when he said Saddam wouldn't let the inspectors into Irak............

[tavalon]

68. Can't turn them on

Don't have cable. Haven't for years. Today isn't going to change it. I know that they are doing exactly what you say, anyway.

[Populist_Prole]

69. I pretty much watch just TCM

I'm bombarded enough by it at other's homes and the at work in the breakroom. It really is true that it all sounds like this hugely obnoxious barrage of noise, spoon-feeding bullshit to the viewers. You could tell the types who get their news only from TV by the way they all say the same thing...repeat the same talking points, in a way that it's obvious that they could not all come to the same conclusion unless they were LED there. Any sports broadcasting is equally horrific, what with the raving lunatic announcers and constant barrage of stupid ads, in triplicate, geared to cretins.

[russspeakeasy]

70. williampitt...you just get better and better..thanks...

[Skittles]

71. LOL, I turned off the TV "news" a long, long time ago

[sarge43]

73. Thank you, Mr Pitt

Spot on as always.

Canned cable about five years ago. Got tired of the idiot treatment from the ads to the news and I'm not giving money to anyone or anything that treats me like a fool. The only reason we have tv monitors now is to watch DVDs. The net gives me all the news I can handle.

Harlan Ellison called this back in the late '60's. The Glass Teat is still a worthwhile read.

[tomp]

74. last night i saw something hard to believe.

all four pundits on pbs stating unequivocally that it is far beyond the pale to connect right wing hate speech to this shooting, specifically exonerating sarah palin.

liberal media.

[rtassi]

76. Out 13 years ago .. a continuous moment of silence ...

and you really don't need it to stay informed ... nobody does ... we have become a nation of anger junkies ... and not changing ourselves from the inside out, is what prevents real change ...
rt

[tpsbmam]

77. Shit, too late to R but not too late to kick. Love it, Will!!!

You hit the nail on the head. Only things I've watched are Democracy Now & Thom Hartmann on FSTV. I've listened to KO & RM podcasts. That's it. Actually, that's been it for quite awhile. I've had it with right-wing bullshit. I can read about it online -- I don't need to see or hear their smarmy selves.

[snooper2]

78. have you watched the new Intervention?

?