I have always had the basic rule in life that I would never date nor marry a media person. It’s not that I despise them. In fact, several of my friends work in radio and television.
They are wonderful friends, but I don’t have to live with them. Unfortunately, due to a moment of temporary insanity and/or misguided tail-chasing, I not only dated a media maven, but married her.
I found out in the intervening five years why this seemingly odd rule was in place to begin with. You see, living with a “reporter” is a lot like signing up to be the nightly guest on the Spanish Inquisition. Everything you ever do, no matter how innocent, is always the subject of an extensive interview, filled with lots of trick questions designed to get you to confess to things you never did. Worse, weeks later, a new round of questioning takes place, comparing your answers with the previous ones.
I willingly admit right now that I never heard a single news report she ever did. Yes, I had a radio. But I never tuned into her station, largely because she worked for a station with a talk radio format. Not just talk radio, but whack job right wing talk radio featuring the likes of Rush and Glenn Beck. Not exactly my cup of tea.
Actually, talk radio has never been my cup of tea. I don’t care if the topic is news, sports, politics: you won’t ever see me dialed into them.
There’s a simple reason for this and no, it’s not because my ex tended to be a right-winged, agnostic farm girl, all of which was on my “never date under any circumstances list.” Rather, it’s because I don’t need someone else to tell me how I should think.
I am actually quite concerned that a lot of people seem to need this. Mindless drones that tune into their favorite radio “personality” so they can have their views shovel-fed to them. It’s a real problem in this country and quite frankly, I think it’s one of the reasons why America is going to hell in a handbasket.
There was a time, and don’t be frightened by this, that we used to enjoy the company of others who had differing opinions. Our populace was actually informed enough about a wide range of topics to have a discourse, albeit at times a very spirited one, about politics, religion, society… the list goes on. Virtually every topic could be discussed and out of this exchange came new insight and ideas.
Amazing, isn’t it? But today, we only want to hear from one side, the side that tends to reflect our own views, no matter how misguided they may be. The outfall of this, of course, is the bottleneck we have in government. We don’t vote for anyone who may have better ideas than our own side does. Good ideas be damned, we’re going to stick with the guy who will pander to our own views regardless of whether or not they are good for the country.
Talk radio is at the heart of this, as is talk TV. We tune in like mindless sheep to listen to these sh** shovelers, then merrily go off to share their/our opinion with others, feeling that we must educate those who don’t see it our way.
Facebook is rife with this insipid drool. We all recall the nonsense about the president’s birth certificate or the fact that he was secretly Muslim. We are now hearing from the gun lobby that we should all be armed or have to pay a fine, or that rights in this country are unassailable and absolute; that one side’s view is the only one that’s right and that any compromise will be the ruin of our democracy, which is on the brink of socialism.
I would find this all highly amusing if it weren’t for the fact that people actually believe this crap. When the Internet came along, I thought it would be a godsend. People would be able to research issues and vet information, comparing what they heard on Fox News with other sources. But they only seem to check sites that agree with their view. Rather than ferret out facts that may run to the contrary, they look for sites that support a report and quote it instead.
In college, this would have earned me an F in any class I took. Research is the foundation of intellectual growth. Finding the facts and separating them from fiction is at the core of being open minded and thinking outside the box.
Unfortunately, many Americans are climbing into an increasingly smaller box. They don’t want to challenge themselves to think; it takes too much time and work. Rather, they spout the mindless meanderings of a radio “personality” or their preacher. They goose step right in line to everything they say, and they share it with other like minded people, shying away from those who may have other views, or shudder, facts.
It’s Intellectual Isolationism at its very best. Instead of stepping out into this big world and growing as an individual, we retreat to our comfort zone, setting up roadblocks to learning since those pesky facts may skew our thinking and crumble the very foundation of our life. Sorry folks, you’re living in a house of cards.
Talk radio is for mindless drones who don’t want to take the effort to think. It is staffed by “personalities” who aren’t there to open minds, but to close them; substituting fact with fiction in an attempt to control the agenda, their agenda. They are supported by advertisers who want to get you hooked, so they can sell you something and what they are selling you is suspicion, division, hate and contempt for the foundation of democracy as well as your neighbor, co-worker, teacher or government representative.
Talk radio isn’t the celebration of freedom of speech, but a mockery of it. Try thinking for yourselves. Yes, it’s a scary thought, but in the end, you may just learn something.
In the Emerald City, with not a single radio in the house,
– Robb