Saturday, January 22, 2011

Congratulations on Your Nearly Tasteful Comments!

This is a rare congratulations directed at network news. It’s kind of a cop out, sure, since it’s addressed to an event which already occurred, but it warrants writing.

Network news: good job generating a nearly tasteful response to Barack Obama’s speech on the horrific shootings in Arizona. For almost ninety seconds apiece each of you avoided saying anything stupid, which is completely unheard of. Then you started in again, sure. But for a brief moment you remembered that we’re a nation filled with real live human beings and sometimes they don’t need to hear you nitpick how all those human beings are slightly different from you.

Sure, your coverage beforehand was tasteless and rendered in such a fashion as to make the event seem incoherent to normal, thinking people. And you’ve spent more time discussing faux pas people made that relate somewhat to it than you have actually discussing current events since then. But for almost two minutes you stood up and had a human response to a speech someone made far away about some horrible actions that someone very troubled carried out against some totally blameless people. Then you went back to entering into a level of discourse inappropriate for any group of adults. So kudos to you for that brief leave from your normal duties.

As for your prediction: be wary of raccoons tonight. They may or may not carry AIDS.

Feel free to broadcast that one.

Congratulations on Your Nearly Tasteful Comments!

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