26 June 2006

...and then there was the YELLING...

Holy moly. I was raised in a very quiet household. I can remember a college boyfriend commenting that he was nervous in my parents' house because it was so quiet. When I first met Scott's family I was the nervous one because they were so loud! I will admit to being a bit sensitive to the raising of the voice.

I was doing my daily blog-read and got to this entry on Simply Left Behind. Before you click, beforewarned, it contains a video clip from Fox News of an "interview" with someone from the Westboro Baptist church...you remember them? The crazy people who think that God hates the USA and gay people and the military and and and and...the ones that desecrate funerals by picketing...those folks.

Watching that clip was interesting... It reminded me of one evening when I was still living with Scott and he sat down to watch "the news" while I was on the computer. I wasn't paying attention to what he was watching because most of his TV time involved surfing and invariably I would see something I'd like to watch that would get passed by...so I was just focusing on the computer. I remember that he paused to watch something so I looked around. To this day I couldn't tell you the name of the program, only that the Fox News logo was in the corner and the so-called journalist/anchor/person in charge of moderating the interview and the person being interviewed were screaming at each other. Screaming. Loudly. Angrily. I asked him what it was and he said he didn't know, just "whatever Fox News is showing right now." So from that moment on, Fox News became the Shouting News Network or the Angry News Network. "Scott, do we have to watch the Shouting News Network?" "Scott, aren't they covering that same story on a channel other than the Angry News Network?" I asked him once why he watched Bill O'Reilly (other than the obvious, he was a closet conservative who I think voted Republican) and he said, "because it's funny to watch how worked up Bill gets over stupid stuff." I think he said the same thing about most anything he watched there...

Now, on the other hand, I don't really watch CNN either, before that gun comes out a'blazin'...CNN has been, since the beginning of the business in Iraq, "the Green Network" to me. There are people there that shout, just like on Fox, and invariably on CNN there is someone showing me something using infrared/night vision camera work so everything is green. For my news, I read the BBC website (because I'm too poor to afford digital cable so I can watch BBC America) and listen to NPR. No one yells on NPR. Garrison Keillor, while not a purveyor of news save that of Lake Woebegon, doesn't yell. Larry Abramson doesn't yell. Robert Siegel and Melissa Block don't yell. I feel comfortable there.

Kudos though, to Simply Left Behind...you made my blog roll for a reason.

8 comments:

Kalyne said...

...but see, NPR is absolutely boring, it makes me want to go to sleep, which is why I always stick a CD in so there's no NPR...

I rather listen to yelling, because at least I'll stay awake and get a good laugh.

Nancy E. Dunne said...

NPR is only boring because you're almost 14, mah dear. I find it fascinating.

Kalyne said...

No, it's not the stuff they talk about, it's those long dreary voices of theirs.

It reminds me of... umm... Ben Stein.... or someone like that....

Nancy E. Dunne said...

Then you obviously have not listened to A Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk, Whaddaya Know, or some of the other non-news shows that have no one talking like Ben Stein and lots of laughing.

Kalyne said...

pssshhhhtttt.

I think you had something playing when I woke up one morning though, and they were raising money and stuff. That was boring. That might've been just 'cause they were raising money.

Nancy E. Dunne said...

Ahhh yes the horrible Pledge Drive Season. I probably did have it on when you woke up as I listen to NPR almost non stop all day when I'm home. The Pledge Drive is not representative of anything else they do, I promise.

Kalyne said...

Surrrrrrrrrreeeeeee..... Get back to you on that one.

:P-_-_-_-_-_-_ [please note that is spit.]

Nancy E. Dunne said...

The point is that there is so much crap out there that passes itself off as "News..." Give me NPR and the Daily Show (and yes, I know that's entertainment) and the BBC and I'm set as far as my news goes. No yelling needed.

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