Idiot Box News

1. Go back to the pre-deregulation days and ban lawyers and doctors from advertising on TV.
2. Ban prescription drug advertising. If you can’t buy it yourself, don’t advertise it.
3. Make TV news part of the public broadcasting system, not ad supported. That way News is the news and not concerned with ratings.

Last week there was a tragedy in town when a 12 year old girl was abducted and then later found murdered. A sad story that is becoming all too familiar. I was watching a local news channel a couple of days after she was found, when a story came on about her. A reporter was standing outside the victim’s family home, camera moving from the reporter to zoom in on stricken relatives entering the home. As the reporter was talking about the tragedy, she pointed out a police cruiser that was on the street and said that he "was there to protect the family’s privacy". She said this with a sad, but straight face, and the ending shot zoomed in to the face of a family member in tears.

The station then went to a commercial break. The first was an ad for a well known depression medicine. The second was for a local lawyer who was advertising if you were a victim of an accident or other violent crime, he would fight for your rights and get you the money you deserved. It was at this point that I turned off the box and sat there staring at the blank screen.