I gave up on commercial television several decades ago and that was a decision that I never regretted. I’ve never seen Friends. I’ve never seen Seinfeld. I’ve never seen Big Bang Theory. Name any of the television shows over the last few years, and I can confidently tell you that except for possibly a few seconds accidental exposure, I haven’t seen any of it. And guess what? It hasn’t killed me, hasn’t resulted in me being ostracized from society and. indeed hasn’t had one single detrimental thing happen in my life. In fact one could argue that it’s been enormously beneficial. I read several books a week. I garden, I dabble with electronics, woodworking. computers, engraving, needle work. cooking,, photography, drawing…. And people don’t understand how I have the time to do all of that. It’s because I don’t waste years of my life watching the drivel being served up by the commercial television producers.
And having to sit through the evening news from one of the big networks the other day made me vividly remember one of the reasons why.
News starts. Teasers telling me of important stories that really aren’t all that important and don’t actually give any information in the hopes of making me keep watching. Lead story about the flood in Texas that lasts about a minute. Another teaser about an upcoming story. Duration about 2 minutes total before cutting to 3 minutes of commercials for prescription drugs and “supplements” that basically are nothing but snake oil.
Return from commercial. Thirty second blurb about something Trump said. Cut to 4 minutes of commercials for more drugs and a health insurance scam.
Thirty second blurb about something Rubio said. Cut to 2 and a half minutes of commercials for laxatives and two more drugs with side effects more terrifying than the illness they treat.
Thirty second blurb about Gaza. Cut to 2 minutes of commercials for more “supplements” and an ad for a drug.
One minute story about how hot it is. Cut to ad for scam Medicare Advantage insurance and two minutes of drug commercials.
Thirty second blurb about deportations. Cut to 3 minutes of commercials.
The “lead story” finally appears. An “in depth” story about tariffs that lasts all of a minute and a half before cutting to… you guessed it, more commercials.
Back to the 30 seconds of news followed by minutes of drug commercials…
In that entire half hour the actual amount of real information that was shown could have been presented in less than a few paragraphs of text that I could have read in about five minutes.
Dear sweet lord, why do people put up with this crap?
grouchyfarmer 
I agree…..I watch the local news just in case after that I cannot stand the big networks anymore……everything is whitewashed and the ads would choke a horse…..I have huge library and I still read more than watch. chuq
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When I do watch video these days it’s either streamed over the internet or from my own collection, or places like archive.org. Advertising has gotten to the point where I find it infuriating. It’s like every single thing is sponsored. I was trying to listen to a baseball game this afternoon. The first pitch of the game was sponsored by a construction company. A foul ball was sponsored by a sausage company.
MrsGF and I both read a lot. Of late I’ve been digging into the classics I should have read back in high school and college and managed to avoid because I thought they’d be boring. And I suppose to my 18 or 20 year self they would have been, so perhaps it was for the best that I didn’t get around to reading them until I was mature enough to appreciate them.
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I am a hockey fan and the last minute is brought of us by McDs…..silly because it is infuriating……I have a book on Kindle with all the4 classics from Old Greek to enlightenment to Russian masters…..it is what gets me through my infusion sessions. chuq
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People tolerate it for habit or background noise, not substance.
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I suppose that’s true. A lot of people just filter it out automatically.
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