TV news—in its present form—is in trouble.

Oh, it’s not that we’re doing bad things—but rather that we’re becoming less relevant to our audience..

A recent Zogby poll indicates two-thirds of Americans—a whopping 67%–think traditional journalism is out of touch with their lives.

You can read the details here—which includes the fact that just about half the people surveyed get most of their news from the Internet.

WIRE YOU STILL WATCHING TV ….

The new media certainly have an advantage over traditional TV in that—in its simplest form—all it takes to get a news clip on-line is your own video camera, an Internet connection—and you’ve got a world-wide audience.

Compare that to how a traditional TV news broadcast gets on the air.

This clip is from the mid-70’s, and although some of the technology is dated—the same effort and vast numbers of people are still involved in producing what amounts to brief bits of news content…

WHAT THE ZELL….

The new owner of one of the largest media conglomerates in the country is one of those folks who thinks the traditional Media are out of touch.

Real Estate tycoon Sam Zell—who purchased the Tribune company—has told his employees the journalism they are practicing doesn’t give readers and viewers what they want.

Zell has also tried to explain to his employees they have a stake in the new company—which apparently befuddled one poor, misguided staffer at the Tribune company’s WGN in Chicago…

TOON IN YOUR TV ….

Back in the 50’s when TV’s popularity boomed—and it was still going through it’s technological growing pains of poor reception and limited program availability—cartoon director Tex Avery tried to envision what TV would be like in the decades to come…

So where is TV headed in the next few years?

You tell me… TALK BACK here.

But do it here, on the Internet, please—so LOTS of folks can join in.

—Steve

Link to video & story Steve covered today on NBC-17

I readily admit I’m not the brightest bulb on the marque—but I don’t understand this surge in gasoline prices at the pump…

It wasn’t but a couple of weeks ago they were talking about how the record oversupply of gasoline stocks was forcing the price at the pump to fall sharply…

You can read that article here–where they expected the glut to drop the price by up to 50 cents a gallon.

With-in a day or two of that prediction, the price at the pump began to climb again..

Now, although we’re seeing crude hit record highs of $102 dollars a barrel—the glut of oil continues to grow in this country…

The weekly report from the Energy Information Administration says in part:

U.S. crude oil stocks rose last week for the seventh week while sluggish demand pushed gasoline supply up for the 16th week in a row to its highest level in 14 years.

 

Now, I’d always heard that prices of goods are based on supply and demand.

BIG DEMAND + SMALL SUPPLY= HIGHER PRICES

SMALL DEMAND +BIG SUPPLY=LOWER PRICES

So if we’ve got SO MUCH GAS sitting around—why is the price spiraling up at the pump—with predictions now of $4.00 a gallon in the next few weeks?

Something doesn’t add up…

Adding more frustration to all of this, the congress has passed a bill that’ll hit the oil companies with 18-Billion dollars in new taxes…

That money is supposed to be used to help us finance alternative energy.

Although the bill has yet to get to the president’s desk—I know that if it’s approved—no oil company will pay a penny of that tax..

Like any other corporation, they’ll pass the cost on to the consumer.

If the price of gas continues to go up, we may all be paying so much for gasoline—and associated goods that depend on gasoline—that we’ll be WEARING the oil barrel !

—Steve

There’s a school of thought among many parents that we should make the lives of our children better than ours were when we were growing up.

And although that seems laudable—it’s possible we’ve gone too far..

There’s a new survey out that indicates our materialistic world may be damaging our children…

You can read here how  ”children feel under pressure to own the latest designer clothes and computer games.”

The survey suggests the commercialization of childhood is creating mental health problems..

How far are we going?

Well.. here are a couple of examples…

This clip features a pair of parents who require nothing more of their daughter than to “be pretty”…

(Although the creator of the clip has added his or her own  comments to the video in the form of subtitles—you can watch beyond that and make your own evaluation.)

Then there’s this young lady—- who has a melt-down because the car her parents purchased for her is the WRONG color…

Think her reaction is unusual? I think not.

Check out ANOTHER angry young lady who doesn’t like her car..

Perhaps we are giving our kids too much.

If you have kids—think back to when they were young—and got a gift.

Chances are they spent more time playing with the box it came in than they did with the toy.

As they used to tell us in journalism school, when we were learning to write: K.I. S. S.

Keep It Simple Stupid.

Maybe we ought to practice K.I.S. S. with our kids.

—Steve

Link to video & story Steve covered today on NBC-17

So many frustrations…so little time—

—So here comes some more bits of what’s left of my mind…

WHOSE ON FIRST ….

Since her campaign began—we’ve been a bit confused by Hillary Clinton’s repeated references to “her” presidency—and have had fun listing them on the sidebar when we’ve heard them.

But now comes Bill—campaigning for Hillary—in Ohio, telling folks that “IF YOU ELECT ME...”

Someone help me figure this out…. Which one of them is running again?

By the way, the international sign of distress at sea is to fly your flag upside down…

I wonder what message that kid standing just behind Bill Clinton was sending with his upside down campaign sign..

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW …

How many of you have called “tech support” and ended up speaking with someone from India where that tech support has been outsourced ?

More often then not—you may have found the tech support person has just a bit of trouble diagnosing your problem…

Well, recently, a friend of mine sent a few photos which may clear up some of the mystery as to why there may be a bit of a technology barrier involved..

HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW…

For some time now—they’ve known that male pattern baldness is genetic—passed from mother to son.

But now, as you can read here, they may have actually figured out WHICH gene is responsible—and how to turn off the baldness thing.

I for one can’t wait—’cause I’m tired of spending several hours at the start of my day doing up my hair just right to cover the bald spot…

—Steve

Link to video & story Steve covered today on NBC-17

As the March 4th primaries loom—Hillary Clinton is under more and more pressure to come up with victories in the big delegate states of Ohio and Texas…

And as the Barack Obama picks up more and more momentum in the polls—things are getting heated between the two…

You can read here how Hillary’s been angrily denouncing Obama as misrepresenting her positions to Ohio voters—while Obama has hit back hard saying his claims are all factual…

Hillary’s also resorted to sarcasm to try and knock the tone of Obama’s campaign rhetoric…

But, as harsh as it’s getting between Hillary and Obama— they’ve yet to have a debate like this one on a local cable tv channel that CNN later picked up and re-broadcast..

Nor, has their rancor reached the point that it did on THIS Argentinian TV show—where a politician accused of owing millions and the host of the program get into it..

The fight started after disagreement on Argentina’s economy, after the host tells the guest that he should pay his taxes  if he wants to see the economy recuperate.

You don’t have to understand the language to see how the politician reacts.. It really gets rolling 40 seconds into the clip…

And, in this clip—-it doesn’t APPEAR that politics was the subject—but the harsh words uttered almost instantly generate a much more visceral reaction…

Although politics CAN be pretty nasty this country—let’s hope it never reaches THAT level..

—Steve