My Vote Counted and other Election Debris.

Today I called the number.  I got the feeling that they don’t get many calls like mine, following up on an affidavit ballot.  But, after briefly describing my voting experience to the nice lady at the Chancery Clerk’s office, I now know that my vote was added to the tally.

As I’ve written before, occasionally media debris gets piled up in my brain–those random thoughts and observations that need an outlet before the maid service comes in.  Hence, the random Election Debris: 

1.  ABC news sported 50 states in 50 days during the primary season, an impressive endeavor.  I saw one woman and daughter from somewhere in the east (maybe West Virginia, I wasn’t paying attention).  They said their key issues for the election were “choice” and “equal pay for equal work.”  I’m wondering when we got to the place in our society when one word– “choice” –could immediately be understood my men, women and children alike to mean there’s no law that would prevent me from choosing to abort my unborn child.  Is that progress?

2.  ”I’m pro-life and pro-gun.” — from U.S. Senate candidate’s ad.  Life and gun.  Strange bedfellows.  But, there’s the Republican Party for you.

3.  Seeing the electoral map in all it’s red and blue glory a full (count them) six weeks before the election.  There’s something troubling about that.

4.  And, the Contrived-Programming-While-Trying-Our-Hardest-to-Look-Natural Award goes to… CNN! For the program (which I only caught a few minutes of) featuring a discussion of politics and the economy held at Delmonico’s in NYC around a poker table (3-sided, mind you. must leave room for the cameras).  Men and women with poker chips and high ball barware — what, no cigars?  Not politically correct, I guess.

5.  Roger Wicker & Ronnie Musgrove Senatorial ads ad nauseum.  Where’s the Pepto when you need it.

6.  General amazement at what makes it above the cable/digital fold:  Sarah Palin’s pregnant daughter segues to Barak Obama’s terrorist neighbor segues to John McCain’s campaign suspension segues to Joe the Plumber’s tax returns segues to Mickey Mouse registers to vote

7.  Sometime during October, I sensed a strange absence.  Where is Joe Biden?  His name wasn’t even on the Obama ads.

8.  And, the You-May-Think-It’s-About-News-But-It’s-Really-All-About-Me-and-My-Profession Award goes to… A string of top news topics: Tina Fey.  Katie Couric’s interview questions.  ”What [insert candidate name here] needs to do is - ahem - as if [insert candidate name here] watches this program - chuckle chuckle.”  CNN facts across the bottom of the screen — thank you CNN, especially for letting me know the accomplishments of your reporters.

9.  What’s up with the trend showing the tv screens within tv screens?  Flipping your laptop around so the tv cameras can see it?  Tellistrating on the electoral maps?

10.  Bites:  Spread the wealth around.  You betcha.  I am not George Bush.

11.  The View.  There’s Joy sounding cantankerous and all Democratic.  There’s Elisabeth being the token Republican with a “yeah, but” when she could get a word in — although I appreciate that she brought notes on her research a couple of times.  There’s Barbara sounding like the voice of journalistic legitimacy, although didn’t that train leave the station when “daytime talk show host” was added to her resume right after “interviewed Fidel Castro.”  Then, there’s Sherrie–not sure for the longest where she stood, but saw her try to get loud on Elisabeth about McCain divorcing his first wife. I’m sensing some relationship/single motherhood issues from a couple of other comments on non-election segments.  And, then there’s Whoopie trying to appear fair while acknowledging her Democrat allegiance, refereeing the others, making a joke, declaring her friendship with John McCain and the Clintons (there’s a dinner party) and getting to commercial break so everyone gets their paycheck.  Ugh.

12.  Fox News website breaking news — “President-Elect Obama to Step Down From Senate” — duh!

This is EyeJunkie, and I approved this list.

Threebie 01: STOP THE PRESSES

(Here is my first installment of “Threebie” posts.  Read about “Threebies” here.)

At 5pm EST on June 1, 1980, after an introduction by Ted Turner that declared “I dedicate the news channel for America — the Cable News Network,” CNN began its first news broadcast.  Its lead story covered President Jimmy Carter’s visit to Vernon Jordan in a Fort Wayne, IN hospital while the Civil Rights attorney and activist recuperated from an attempted assassination.  Just minutes after launch, the program “cut-away” from it’s first commercial break to offer live coverage of the visit.  (See CNN’s first broadcast here.)

And with that, the face of television and media in general was forever changed.  

Almost 30 years later, as I check out CNN.com for the 5th time this morning, in my mind I want to shout “STOP THE PRESSES!” — but, not until I check out FoxNews.com and Eonline.com one more time.  It’s addictive!  And, I’m just an information junkie looking for one more fix.  We have developed into a media-hungry (even obsessed) culture where even the most trivial items are elevated to “news” status by sheer virtue of their ability to fill up airtime and fulfill advertising obligations.  How did we get here?

CNN, appropriately named, was the first 24-hour cable news network.  Its format allowed viewers to gain information about breaking stories faster than they ever had before — almost immediately, in fact.   The network’s premise and programming philosophy made broadcasting live events a priority while maintaining a regular news oriented schedule.

This concept that has become so completely ingrained in our culture and expectations was actually foreign in 1980 and had many doubters.  What was the difference?  In essence, CNN did not stop the presses.  Where newspapers had multiple edition deadlines throughout the day (and night) and traditional networks broadcast news within strict programming schedules that governed when all but the most crucial news could be shown, CNN offered new “news” at every moment — or at least a re-telling of old news and the opportunity to engineer live coverage at the first inkling of a newsworthy crisis.

Now that other news networks and the internet have jumped on board, how has my understanding of news changed?

• Thanks to 8 months on the campaign trail and 4 more to go, I now know more about the Electoral College than my 7th grade Social Studies teacher — and a lot more about hairstyles of candidates and candidate’s wives, way more about that church in Chicago and it’s outspoken pastor, and more than enough sound bites trying to match the power of “I have a dream” or “Ask not what your country can do for you.”
   
• TMZ.com is a bona fide news source.  Hmmm.
   
• Instead of just leaving troop movement to the Pentagon, I can follow a map drawn in the sand by my trusty embedded correspondent.
   
• News reporters are now the newsmakers, using terms like “rednecks” to describe entire voting districts.
   
• Instead of waiting for the next magazine issue covering all the latest starlet styles, I can get a panty shot every time they get in or out of a car.  And, with the advent of high-resolution digital cameras, someone will even let me know the brand — eeew.
   
• Al Gore can concede, retract, concede, retract right up until the Supreme Court gets involved because after all if CNN said it, it must be true.
   
• Forget gas prices and the 2008 presidential election, the top 4 stories in the U.S. section of FoxNews.com include an environmental rant of the Mayor of Ocean City, MD, population 7,173.  Talk about your 15 minutes!
   
• After tuning in to the multitude of ambidextrous political pundits and their daily programs, I am now psychic.  I know what the president is thinking before he does.
   
• Instead of writing about the things that are important to me — like my family, my job, the Bible verse on my mind, and my life — I’m writing about CNN!  What?!?

Stop the presses, people!

Pushing the Envelope with “Swingtown”

I’ll bet you’re familiar with this little experience of human nature.  Just pick one – one or more tend to be daily occurrences in my household.

I say, “We don’t need to throw our toys.”
My preschooler says, “But, I’m just dropping it.”

I say, “Let’s don’t bang our toys around so much.  We need to take care of our toys.”
My preschooler says, “But, I’m just ‘working’ on it.”

I say, “Ooooo.  It’s too loud right now to hit the coffee table with that wooden spoon.  Let’s put the spoon down.”
My preschooler says, “But, I’m just playing my drum.”  And then, with a gleaming look over at Mommy he ever so slightly taps the wood with the spoon and then holds it just above the table in anticipation of another word of correction.

I’m told that these types of experiences are not unusual with 3-year-olds, and I’m proud of how much my sweet little guy is learning in this area when he tells me out of the blue, “We don’t need to throw.”  Despite our usual assumptions, not much escapes the 3-year-old mind.  But, that’s another post.

Yes, these little snapshots of human nature are sometimes cute at 3 years old when paired with the process of growing and learning our boundaries – not so pretty, however, at 38 when boundaries (or the lack of) are still blurred.  At our house, no matter how cute the phrasing or creative the excuse, we call it doing wrong, in this case disobeying Mommy.  When we get to be grownups, however, we and our culture tend to call it “testing the waters,” “pushing the envelope,” or even “groundbreaking.”

Enter “Swingtown.”
“I don’t understand why this show is so threatening, but I don’t understand why gay marriage is so threatening either. I understand there’s going to be a portion of the available audience that will just say, ‘I can’t do this, I can’t go there.’ Too bad, because there is so much to embrace in this show. I think people who reject it have a problem with fear in general in their lives.“

~ Mike Kelley, creator of “Swingtown,” a new television drama premiering this week on CBS.
As quoted in a LA Times article about the show 
(I’ll let you read the article to discover the premise of the show, if you haven’t seen the less than subtle ads.)

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Daytime Television Debris

Recently, I spent almost a week at home with bronchitis, and along with stints of checking email and obsessing about the work projects I wasn’t getting done, I had the occasion to tune in to daytime television.  Now, I’ll admit that I can be up for a good soap marathon with the best of the couch potatoes, especially when I’m sick.

However, during my recent bronchitis soap marathon, somewhere between meeting Victor’s long lost son, watching Katie grieve for her brother who committed suicide so he could be her heart donor (it’s a soap, people!), rolling my eyes at Jack and Carly’s argument because we all know they really love each other, and conniving with Lizzie to keep Bill from taking over Spaulding Enterprises… I started surfing channels.  Channel surfing always yields some interesting moments when paired with being tired, bored and on meds.  I found that in those circumstances, you’ll pay attention to almost anything which obviously leads to lots of thought debris – those random observations that really have nowhere else to go.  So, here they are on EyeJunkie! Continue reading »