In this

bloated, exaggerated, hyperbolic world of "The

News," can we really discern significance anymore?

News programs found on Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS have crossed

the formerly broad line separating information from

exhilaration. Need I say more than, "JFK plane

crash"?

Sensationalism rules.

Spewing forth melodramatic stories at a ballistic pace,

news programs have made capitalism the issue above such

antiquated concepts as journalism, idealism, heroism or

even realism.

Whose fault is it?

Obviously, competitiveness has merged the major news

programs into one large monster of morbidity. They would

like to blame it on us. After all, we eat it up like a

goldfish engorged on flakes. With sound bites containing

words like hurricane, rape or anything Clinton, our

nightly news programs suck in viewers like moths to a

porch light. As an audience, our integrity and

sensitivity have suffered dearly.

Basic, raw facts are not

the issue. Entertainment is the issue. With pressure to

generate higher ratings, thus higher revenues, news

producers everywhere encounter the age-old dilemma of how

to get people to watch. Disguised as hard news, stories

of death, deceit and destruction are there to simply

stimulate our already overstuffed minds.

Modesty misses the boat on

this trip, however. The age-old philosophical ideals are

surely corrupted. "Which came first, the chicken or

the egg?" has now been replaced with, "Which

came first, sensational news or the desire to see

sensational news?" "If Dan Rather fell in the

woods and no one was there to hear it, would he make a

sound?" "Can God make a scandal so big, Peter

Jennings couldn't carry it?"

Scandal and tabloid TV are

our God-given right. I am OK with that. And even though

some people think that television was invented for PBS,

The Discovery Channel and C-Span, I personally feel that

this electronic quadrate never does reach its full

potential as when it blares Judge Judy, Pro Wrestling or

a be-leathered Xena, the Warrior Princess. Yet, no matter

what your personal tastes, at the least, those forms of

entertainment are honest.

The news programs are

fallacious. The networks should either advertise their

diatribes as what they are, or change their names:

"Eyewitness Exploitation," "11 Alive...or

is He Dead?" "Channel 5...We Got More Blood

than the Red Cross." By any means, I am not into

censorship, regulation, or even boycotting product

sponsors (except maybe, dogs that wear hats). I say, if

you don't like it, don't watch it.

Still, there has to be a

revolution or at least an evolution concerning what the

"news" is. Report information that we need. We

don't need, "Woman Trapped in Crushed Car by

18-Wheeler." We don't need any stories about people

burned, tortured, gouged or fleeced. We shouldn't have to

watch a single news show and hear words such as drive-by,

nude dancing, firebomb, 9-millimeter, or anything

beginning with "psycho." Helicopters should be

for reporting on traffic and weddings of rock stars,

otherwise they should be grounded in favor of words and

restraint.

The truth is, news programs

present sensational events as a microcosm of mainstream

life. The truth is, they aren't. We should be informed.

We should be told. We should know... When television

reporting programs recapture these values above all

others, well, that will be news.