When Did The Evening News Become The 24/7 Conjecture?

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HERE I RAISE MY EBENEZER

GREAT ASCENT WITH GREATER DESCENT

There has been much marvelous advancement in broadcast journalism since I came into this world. At that time, we only had a console radio in our home. When I was a toddler, we got our first black-and-white TV but we could only get reception from one local TV station. By the time I was old enough to start paying attention to the news, we were able to receive broadcasts from local affiliates of the three major TV networks, as well as a weak signal from an independent station in another city. In the past 50 to 60 years, technological improvement has been phenomenal and the sources to choose from have increased by several orders of magnitude. However, as has been glaringly obvious lately, along the way, a key element of the news has been frighteningly perverted, if not lost. That key element is, simply, the reporting of the news. “Back in the day”, you could count on the fact that when you tuned in to news programs, like The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, you would just get the known details of that day’s current events. That seemed worthwhile and productive. Today, to a great degree, news reporting has become lost in a nearly endless supply of conjecture. This seems, at least counterproductive, if not dangerously destructive.

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MoveOnBostonLegal.org

“Legal Dramedy”, is how Wikipedia defines the format of the TV series Boston Legal. Living TV describes the show as a “… critically acclaimed and Emmy Award-winning quirky legal drama …” That is a good summary of why I first became enamored with this brilliantly entertaining program. Unfortunately, it has become increasingly common to hear the production characterized as “shamelessly liberal”. With that, Boston Legal’s brilliance and entertainment value has continued to decline and its charm is rapidly fading for me.

Ironically, in a recent episode, entitled “Tabloid Nation”, Boston Legal, itself, addresses my very concern. In that episode, during one of his much ballyhooed “arguments”, James Spader, as Attorney Alan Shore says, “… today you can switch back and forth between the right-wing news and the left-wing news. Whatever happened to Huntley? Brinkley? John Chancellor? To news that was just the news? Now we have partisan junk appealing to the lowest common denominator …” I want to ask something very similar … Whatever happened to Seinfeld? Frasier? Tony Soprano? To brilliant entertainment that was just brilliant entertainment?

Now, it’s Boston Legal that gives us one-sided “… partisan junk appealing to the lowest common denominator …” Worse yet, its cloaked in the pretense that it’s still really just entertainment. There’s a Biblical caution about this … In what is known as The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:15), Jesus says, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” And, there’s a Biblical caution about the results too … in Revelation 3:16, the Lord says, "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” If Boston Legal wants to be brilliantly entertaining, I believe it still can. If it wants to be a “shamelessly liberal” public policy advocacy group, it can probably do that too. By trying to be one while pretending to be the other, it squanders the significant value it once had and that makes me want to vomit … or, at least, tune out.

Although the waste of what Boston Legal once was is a shame, what it has become is aggravating a wound that our nation desperately needs healed. In a more recent Boston Legal episode, entitled “The Court Supreme”, more one-sided “… partisan junk appealing to the lowest common denominator …” is featured in another Spader/Shore “argument”. This has received much acclaim from those to whom this sort of thing appeals. For me, it was another glaring example of the continuing political decline of our nation – i.e. the politics of fully pitting ourselves against those who don’t agree with our views, based on any difference we can find. As I said in an earlier posting, entitled Rediscovering America's Strength, our nation needs urgent care for this wound, through “… rediscovering the strength that made America great in the first place ... the synergy of the best of our differing ideas.” With that in mind, reluctantly, I plan to start tuning out of Boston Legal, as well as other programs that choose a similar route.

Its Beginning to Sound a lot like Christmas

When Figgins and I go walking, we typically stick to the sidewalks in our part of town or the paths along the hidden brook in the wooded area that runs through our neighborhood. This time of the year, however, we like to venture out near the more commercial areas, to enjoy the sights and sounds of Christmas. It seems that each time we go out, Christmas excitement is mounting and there's more to see and to hear. In the midst of all this, we like to seek out one of the things that we think typifies Christmas ... a sound you find in front of almost every large store ... the consistent ring, ring, ring of a hand-bell, held by a Salvation Army Volunteer, standing next to that familiar Red Kettle.

Although the sight of the Salvation Army Bell Ringer is familiar to most of us, at Christmas, many miss out on what a powerful blessing this scene represents. TV spots, featuring a Bell Ringer inserted in scenes of natural disasters and other scenes of human need, have provided some great visibility to what is accomplished through the simple but dedicated work of the Bell Ringers. Its truly amazing, when you check the Salvation Army Website and see all the needs that are served in this way ... Adult Rehabilitation, Family, Armed Forces, Disaster Relief, Human Trafficking and much more. And if what the Salvation Army does is amazing, their effectiveness in doing it is even more amazing ... 83 cents of every dollar placed in those little Red Kettles reaches the needy individuals served by the Salvation Army's programs.

In discussing this with Figgie, I emphasize that the Salvation Army's "sound of Christmas" is really a continuation of the very first Christmas message. If you're familiar with the Christmas story, you know that the announcement of the birth of Christ was made by an Angel to a group of "shepherds abiding in the field" (Luke 2:9-20). The first words of this greatest of announcements was "Fear not!" There is more packed into those two words than I can begin to define. But, those words have been a source of hope for billions over the past two-thousand-plus years. Especially in the midst of today's uncertainties, Figgie and I are comforted and encouraged through hearing that ongoing message, embedded in the ring, ring, ring of the bell in the hand of a present-day Christian Soldier, in the Salvation Army .