Going home for break affords me the opportunity to catch up on TV viewing, something I rarely do while at school. One week of faithful attendance in front of my television, however, is usually enough to satisfy my craving and remind me of how bad it actually can be.
The most irritating television programs are not the inane sitcoms which come on night after night, but the five and six o'clock news programs. Once my Dartnews subscription ends each term, I usually become completely uninformed of anything newsworthy in the world. Feeling a little sheepish over my instant ignorance of current events this December, I tuned into the TV news each evening for the first week of break. Since our television reception at home is one step below that of Dartmouth's, my selections were an almost clear NBC or a fuzzy ABC. I chose the latter.
At first I was actually entertained by the stories they fed me, intrigued by in-depth inspection of child labor in China and discussions of American spies who sold secrets to the Russians. However, I began to get angry after watching carbon-copied news three nights in a row. The only thing that seemed to change was the story order and the weather.
Furthermore, I was bothered by the emphasis of human interest stories over serious news events. The promotions for special interest stories were so pervasive that all but the final bit of information is shown in the numerous previews. It appeared that more time was spent previewing the upcoming special interest story than on international news altogether.
To be fair, the special interest stories do tend to offer some comic relief to the sickening format of the news program. One particular such story was NBC's series on male health issues. My favorite was male baldness. Did you know that men can have metal snaps inserted into their scalps so that their toupees can snap on? It helps to avoid that oh-so-embarrassing "slip" of the hair. The night that segment aired, its previews led viewers to believe that it was more important than the hostage situation in Peru. Or at least Tom Brokaw must have thought so.
Over the break, I viewed the news faithfully for about 3 days. I am now fully informed of the wonders of Tickle Me Elmo and the dangers of the hair-eating Cabbage Patch doll. I heard the anger and jubilation expressed when OJ got custody of his children. According to Grandma, that was the most newsworthy event of the season. She knows -- she's a faithful viewer of TV news, morning and night.
If I hadn't skimmed through the 2-page national and world news section of my mother's local newspaper, I never would have known that a new Secretary-General was elected for the United Nations. Nor would I have known much about the Tupac Amaru group in Peru. But for other Latin American news, TV information was bountiful. I was more than fully informed of Argentina's reaction to Evita. I also was able to see clips from the Argentinean version!
Suffice it to say, I found television newscasts disappointing, if not ridiculous. It makes for great background noise when you come home from work or are preparing dinner, but lacks substantive content to warrant full attention. It fails to educate or entertain, falling somewhere in between the two. Eventually, (before my first week home had ended) I gave up the TV news and just went out with friends. Ignorance is bliss, at least when it's ignorance from the trash they show on TV.
