Monday, July 02, 2007

Lists

It is just amazing to me how the media these days reports on a couple of issues. Take for instance the movies. Every Monday morning you will see the media talking about which new movie made the most money over the weekend. They don't mention whether or not the movie is any good, or if it is X-Rated, or violent, or good family fare. They just concentrate on how much money it made. And who came in second, third and fourth....etc. Yes, the media outlets have good reviews on Fridays, but what is so important about how much money a movie made. Well, I read today the movie Ratatouille was the winner this week. We saw it Friday and it was very enjoyable. Its a good family movie with lots of adult humor too which the kids might miss.

The media likes the money list format so much so much they now have started using it on how they report Presidential Campaigns. Just read about 70% of the stories on the campaign in the last week and it would most likely be centered on how much money each of the candidates has raised. It says very little about where this deluge of cash came from. It says little about candidate positions on social security, global climate change, poverty or the war. It just is now much money they sucked in. Yes, money is important for Presidential campaigns, but so is the candidates positions on these issues. Yes, the media does some reporting on candidates positions, but mainly they seem obsessed with the money race.

I thought Bill Richardson had the best line last week in the Democrats debates in New York. He said that when people complain about how to pay for social and poverty programs they should remember that no one ever seems to be concerned about how we pay for wars.

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