Ray Ciervo Ministries

Blather . . . That's the term I associate with nearly all the news the media delivers. Even over the channel I would normally turn to; it's still blather. As Neil Postman said in effect, on any TV program there's very little that will change the way I live today. Perhaps the weather is the most informative media event that will actually affect my life.

After being somewhat addicted to 24 hour news, gone through recovery, and witnessed a miraculous transformation I know I'm free. It was crushing to realize even my most trusted media personalities were just that, media personalities. After all, even the news is about profit. There ability to couch news items, report the most sensational, and even sensationalize the mediocre in order to draw attention is well, less than sincere. Other than sincerely wanting your attention there's no other sincerity. Neither is there any neutrality. One personality came across devoted to her channels ethics and cast. Then mysteriously she was absent, only to be found anchoring her opponents show! Crushed! How could she do it? Her poise, style, intellectual prowess all bundled in a beautiful smile supported her news organizations motifs. But after it's all said and done - it's a show.

Even the "fair and balanced" presumption is not very fair or balanced. Our trouble is that we want this to be true. We want a neutral report on issues where we can decide for ourselves. But, in the end, it is blather. Words, words, words about nothing that will alter life, improve life, or give some direction . . . blather. The end of the news is to get us to watch the news so sponsors will pay the bucks to get their products sold. Once again, I refer to Neil Postman: The news has become entertainment. In the very least, it works to be entertaining. To keep watching the 24-hour programs they must lure you in and make you think you need to know this. The question is, "Why? Why do you need to know this?"

Why do I need to know about the crane that fell off the building? Or about the back hoe that fell through the ice? What does it do for me to know these things? Catastrophe's, human-interest stories, wars, famine, drug testing, all have the same importance to the news program - they get your attention. The discourse (I use the word loosely) of information is then interrupted by the real point of the news - the commercial. Your brain will go from giving attention and focusing on a disaster with thousands of innocent victims to a woman's hygiene product. The disruption of thought is harmful. It takes a few moments to realize what has just happened, but you hang on to hear about these innocent victims and sit through up to thirteen commercials (I've counted). In the middle of the next round of blather is a "tease" about a corruption scandal that you won't want to miss, but wait - we'll be right back . . . and on it goes.

Perhaps it's moving back to the Northeast that has caused me to be even more conscious of my time and where I spend it. Or maybe the blather saturation point was reached during the recent "election results" from the numerous primaries and caucases. Whichever or whatever the cause is I've tuned out the blather and returned to the book. Which book? Almost any book will do - you have to think when you read, and that my friend is a beginning.