killgoon

Jack DeSena used to hang out at my house quite frequently. He was friends with my old roommate. Thoughts on Jack?

Exactly. TV news is garbage. It's always been garbage. TV news is engineered to serve the lowest common denominator, obsessed with scandal and celebrity and not actually thinking.

If people want to get real news, they have to read it. It's always been that way.

Let's talk about why: 21 percent of Americans can't read at a fifth grade level. TV news is the only way those people know about anything going on in the world.

Let's expand that just a bit: if 21 percent of Americans can't even read at a fifth grade level, then how many can process how much of the world is controlled by computers, and what exactly this NSA program means to their privacy? Do you think they even understand the intricacies of what our nation's right to privacy entails?

And TV stations are required, by law, to air the news. It's a condition of obtaining an FCC license. So if you have to air the news, are you going to talk to a tiny group of educated people who are probably getting their news from the paper and not watching TV anyway, or are you going to dumb it down to get the best ratings you can? It's an easy decision, driven by money -- not malice.

Really, NPR is the only exception to the rule.