Media Overdose

 

                                                                            

             How much is too much?                               

Talk about modern irrealism, and we have a thousand lashing tales at hand. From liberal to conservative from Main Street to back alley, media nowadays lives on slander. Turn on the idiot box and you will see muscle-bound faces, iracund and gory, filled with political theosophists turning their heads into the ever-changing political array of events. From Obama to heretofore non existent political diva, Christine O'Donnell, every political and apolitical character is subject to the omnipotent media. Gone are the days of tasting a news as it is, devoid of the spice and pepper, we now have "views" mixed with actual news to such an inextricable level that it becomes impossible, if not implausible altogether, to make up our own minds regarding one social or political issue without being deliberately thrown in the herd of for-or-against people. We can not stand being apathetic to something as trivial as Bristol Palin's dance performance; we got to have views about everything. And for that sole purpose of view formation we have our 24/7 news channels featuring political analysts who with their nerd-glasses and sardonic tongue provide wondrous hypotyposis of whatz up with the world and how America and the rest of the world will drown even before the apocalypse. To tell you the truth, I am tired of the charade. It is not any longer a question of blue or red, good or bad, decision or indecision; it is a question of deliberate demagogy. Our political stars are our new-age heroes--all powerful with muscular authority, ready to save us with more words and less action, inserting fear into our minds and proving comic or tragic solutions that might make no sense to us, yet we accept them with raving applaud. From Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck to Stephen Colbert and his compatriot, Jon Stewart, they are all busy slashing one another, denouncing each others' views to such a level that things are getting out of hand. These days it is difficult to possess a steady view of political character.  We now have good-days and bad-days; some days our political orators would talk good about a person, some days they would talk dirty to boost us the ratings of their abstemious shows. It's all a game, give and take, slander and libel. Who can we trust, the liberal or the conservative? What's the difference? They are the two colors of one chameleon; their ideas may differ, yet they belong to the same species--brain-washing media. They are the new stand up performers whose honeysuckle verbiage makes our dinnertime more exciting and exhilarating. And we feel, more than ever, that we are active part of this media. In a sense we are, Tweeting and discussing news, and adding more and more weight to the internet junk box. We talk and talk about a bit of news until it is eclipsed by juicy Nuevo happenings. Then we forget the old bit of tale and get on with the new one, giving it our undivided attention. History is defunct to us, we live for the day.

With the overactive social media ruling our lives, feelings and emotions of a person have taken a back seat. Sometimes I feel we are all part of one reality show or the other. How many of you portray your true nature in the pixellete world? Only a fraction, I guess. We try to deform reality, make bad jealously good. The other side of a pixellete island must and must be greener. We add taglines making our, kind-of-good, average lives look deliciously decadent. The same is true for the media we keep; they make pea-sized news-bits seem Brobdingnagian in look and importance. And that, my friend, leads us to giving more importance than needed to things like your friend's Facebook status or a Chinese winning a Nobel Peace prize. I see less hoo-hah about USA bagging the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and more about China grabbing the Peace award. Frankly, people, we got to get over our imago of this oriental land.

But no talk about the nuances of new media is finished without the recent Rick Sanchez drama that made CNN fire the proprietor of the Las Fotos del Dia (I thought that segment was the best part of his show). Adios Amigo, said CNN to Rick when he called Jon Stewart "a bigot," and the news world thriving under the scepter of the "Jewish" people. "Offensive," you are correct; but what made Rick take the front seat in the slandering contest? It was Jon Stewart's comic relief. I love Stewart; I remember laughing my guts out to certain Sanchez jokes myself. But now I feel that it is too much we are indulging in. People are being ruined; people are getting betrayed, harassed, accused of bigotry without legitimate proof, all for what: our unquenchable thirst for vile comedy. Here I should add that comedy can thrive without despicable, low-grade references to respectable people of the community. But is it possible for us to get back to clean comedy and clean sitcoms after having tasted the forbidden fruit of wicked media slandering? That is the question I cannot answer.

I don’t think that the talk about the legitimate effect of new-media will ever end. It is one un-ending debate where both parties have their say. But unless we come to a singular deduction, we may never call ourselves wise intellectuals of the day. The media tantrum has degraded our morality to an all time low. I wonder if we can re-boost our systems and get back to clean media where no body is hurt or degraded for no apparent reason. Right now, I hope we do get back to square one and think things over before devouring another bit of our ever-popular pulp-media.

 P.S. Pictures from the internet.