10 Reason I Don't Watch TV News

There are reasons I hardly ever bother to watch television news.

Five ubiquitous stories that I don't give a rat's ass about

1. Anna Nicole Smith - her life, death, or boob size ~ When the History of Golddiggers is written, Smith may merit a chapter; in the history of the country she is not even a pimple.
2. Astronaut diapers ~ I don't need to know that astronauts wear diapers in space or on cross-country drives to attack rivals. My life was complete without ever knowing this.
3. Modes of transit used by people in the chain of Presidential succession (Pelosi, Cheney, Robert Byrd, Condi Rice) ~ People in line for the presidency have a right and a responsibility to travel securely; I don't care how.
4. The melanin content of Barack Obama's skin ~ There is huge media noise this weekend on the question whether Obama is "black enough." Posh and nonsense. I may be old-fashioned, but I judge a man by the quality of his character, not the color of his skin.
5. Harvard's new president ~ The president of Harvard is responsible for signing checks and not saying or doing anything seriously outrageous. Harvard professors and students accomplish things, Harvard presidents don't.

Five important things that bore newsroom editors

1. The build-up to war with Iran ~ Administration officials are openingly rattling the saber towards Persia while claiming they have absolutely no plans to attack. The truth is that, when the Surge fails, the Administration wants to be able to blame Iran for US failures in Iraq. Whether they will use this as an excuse to attack Iran or just for making political noise against Democratic peaceniks will depend on how insane Bush is in May.
2. The Presidential nomination races are national now ~ The media is still pretending that the state-by-state primaries next year will be important. The truth is that there is not enough time between the early primaries for old presidential campaign tactics to work. To win the nominations candidates will need to have national campaigns in place before New Hampshire votes. The nominations will be decided before the first primary votes are cast.
   
3. Nepotism is rampant in Washington ~ Did you know that the Senate Minority Leader is married to the Secretary of Labor? Did you know that when Colin Powell was Secretary of State, his son was chairman of the FCC? Did you know that the son of Senator Strom Thurmond was appointed U.S. Attorney to South Carolina at the tender age of 28, just two years after graduating law school? How about the fact that both Dick Cheney's daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband have held high level Administration posts they were not qualified for?
   
4. As practiced by Bush, "signing statements" have been used to ignore hundreds of laws.
   
5. The "Land of the Free" has the highest percentage of its citizens in prison of any country on Earth. ~ Two million Americans are prisoners in this country. Twenty-two percent of all prisoners everywhere in the world are held in United States prisons. By raw numbers, there are more people in American prisons than Chinese prisons (1.5 million). By percentages, the United States has five times more of its citizens in prison than the United Kingdom and ten times more than Finland.