Of Local Interest Only?

It really bugs me when I'm watching CNN, and all of a sudden the "Just In/Breaking News" music and graphic comes on, and a serious, rather grave-looking Carol Lin appears to tell me there's a three-alarm house fire in Cleveland. Is that important, nationally? I don't think they should be scaring all of us like that, using music and graphics, for a local interest story. Made ya look!! Oy, the drama...

Remember, way back yonder in the old-timey pre-cable days of yore, when a Network Special Report really meant something? You'd hear that music, see Peter Jennings in a dark suit, and you'd just brace yourself to be informed that something truly horrible had happened, something that would have a profound effect on the nation as a whole.

24-hour cable TV news has taken the teeth out of real breaking news, and they only have themselves to blame. Their audience loses, any way you look at.

That being said, this post may be something only Time Warner cable subscribers would understand. There's plenty of 'em in southwestern Ohio, and probably all over the country, but I'm not sure the entire nation is suffering the effects of cable commercial overload.

Because it's really time to stand up, I would like to say that if Time Warner doesn't cut out that Beep Beep Dot Com shit, I'm pretty sure I'm going to hurt somebody. Why is it that every time the cable company has a new commercial, they cram it down your throat and intentionally crank the volume?

Maybe because they don't have to pay for airtime on their own channels? Just guessing.

I can't be the only one who races for the mute button the moment Jeff Gordon shows up and the crowd starts chanting their demonic, car-shopping mantra, like 30,000 Tom Cruises. There's a second spot, even more insidious, where a man sings Beep Beep Dot Com To Shop For Cars Online until it is literally etched into every pore of your being. Forever.

Can anything be done to stop them?

Some of my friends sit around every evening
and they worry about the times ahead
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference
and the promise of an early bed
You either shut up or get cut up
They don't wanna hear about it
It's only inches on the reel-to-reel
And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools
Tryin' to anaesthetize the way that you feel

Elvis Costello, "Radio Radio"