The Most Spectacular Thing in the World… until tomorrow.

I have a few comments on media and sensationalism, and I’m going to try to lay them out in a level-headed, even-handed way (as is the aim of this blog).

I believe our media, especially television, is sensational to the point of ridiculousness.  But I also believe we’re earned every inflammatory word of it.

We have short attention spans:

This isn’t hyperbole.  On the whole, we have access to lots of channels, media outlets, multi-tasking, things vying for our time… our attention spans are short because our lives our complex.  As a result,

The “Die-Hards” Must Die

I’m a sports fan, and mostly root for the Philadelphia Eagles, Phillies, New England Patriots, and on really slow days, the Philadelphia Flyers. But I’m calling out the supposed “Die-Hard” fans of all teams.

You’re all really starting to annoy me.

Here is my list of grievances:

The cynicism of a Haiti donation

Tiger Woods had 13 mistresses.  John Edwards fathered a child on the campaign trail while his wife was home battling cancer.  Seemingly every person who comes on Good Morning America crying for help to find their missing spouse/child ends up being the kidnapper/murderer themselves.   Baseball had the Steroid Era (see my previous post on this:  “Manny Juices…Are We There Yet?”).  And the spectacular fireworks we saw at the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics were a fraud.

So, I mean it from the bottom of my twice-bitten heart when I say

What’s in a Twitter reputation?

I noticed something about Twitter users with huge followings: they typically follow very few people.  Why is this?  Seems to me that they are using Twitter as part of their brand, as a place for them to be, rather than as a tool for them to benefit from.  They’re not there to collect news, or get stock updates, or follow their favorite personalities …they are those personalities.  How do you make this leap?

Manny suspended for steroids… are we there yet?

As a kid you ask your parents on a long, arduous ride: “Are we there yet?”  Well, this baseball steroids thing is a long arduous ride, and since baseball is supposed to make you feel like a kid, I’m asking “Are we there yet”?  Every week there’s a new player that we look up to who is found to be juicing.