Phoning it In

No, not me, I'm referring to the "Media" and entertainment business at large. Lately I've been noticing they are reporting some extemely obvious stories. Most of the time news really is news and entertainment at least tries to be interesting. Here are some absolutely real recent examples:

1. On NPR, a story about how cats like to kill birds. Yes, and...?? Of course they had a bunch of people complaining that the bird population is suffering and all this brutality is unconscionable. I had to check my calendar to see if it was April Fools day. There had to be something more important or interesting to report on - even on NPR. They probably got a thousand e-mails from angry Cat people too, it serves them right.
2. On CBS News' Sunday Morning program a cover story on how scientists have discovered that walking is good for you. No really, even better than we thought- no its really good, you should be walking now. Sunday Morning is one of my all time favorite shows because they will cover Arts & Culture unlike any other network show. My Dad got me into the habit of watching it over 20 years ago. (For the record- my Dad has always said that walking is good for you) It is one of the few Sunday shows that doesn't have talking heads yelling at each other. I don't know what story they left out to report this dog bites man stuff.
   
3. On the History Channels' Modern Marvels recently: The Wheel. I swear to God. I didn't actually watch it, even I have some standards. First of all, yes, the wheel is marvelous, but certainly not modern. In fact its probably one of our oldest inventions- they came up with it sometime right after "sticks" and "fire". And no one really knows who came up with it and when? You can only estimate. What did they talk about, our amazing modern wheels? How round they are and how they aren't made out of wood or stone? How about that revolution in wheels - rubber. I'm going to have to ask Tivo to tape this for me the next time it comes on.