The Death Merchants

The Doom and Gloom sayers.

Someone sent me an article from a blog entitled "Gates of Vienna" which is all about how the Muslims are supposedly going to take over the world. I responded with the following e-mail:

I'm sorry but I don't find the doom and gloom journalists very interesting. I try to avoid them as much as possible because it's news designed to make everyone worried and wondering and seeking more information from the very same death merchants. I think they are all vultures feeding on the hopes of dead bodies so that they can sell more ads. If there were some tragedy in my family that caused news people to flock to my home, I would carefully advise them immediately that if they put one foot on my property I would protect it with every legal means available including shooting them if I felt threatend by their actions. They would soon go away.

In my personal knowledge bank is information that most people don't believe but I have verified it many times over. The scenario goes like this: the missing girl is dead. Little Mary's body has been found mutilated and sexually abused. One news group has the exclusive story. They all have groups of telemarketers. The telemarketers are notified that the exclusive story will be running on the five o'clock news. The telemarketers get on the phone and call all the big money clients to tell them that WXXX has the exclusive story on little Mary's demise with all of the gory details and it will run at five p.m. - Do you want to advertise?" Guess how many say "of course!"? Runs about 80%. Out of the other 20% about two thirds of those say "I wish I could but the budget for the month has already been exceeded." Check it out if you can. It's a pretty closely guarded secret but it does go on.

Since I don't watch the news I'm not exposed to this type of garbage but how many people do you know that refuse to watch this crap? My kids used to ask me "Daddy, why are there so many commericals right in the middle of my favorite program?" I told all of my girls - the tv exists for one reason and one reason only - and that's to sell you stuff. The only exception is PBS. I know one family that threw away the TV about 25 years ago and they seem like the most well adjusted and comfortable members of society that you could possibly find. Is there a message there? I get questions all the time from friends and family inquiring about some news story and I say to all of them "I have no idea. I don't watch that garbage."

If the Muslims do take over Europe, so what? The end of the world is far, far away. These machinations of one religious group are the actions of a small bug on a gnat's ass on the rim of the world in geological terms. The chances of it affecting you or me or our children is remote so why lose any sleep over it? This is just another attempt to stir up a lot of controversy to sell more ads. That's all these big shot TV personalities do is stir up controversy so that more people will watch their show. The ratings go up and they sell more ads. They don't exist to inform you - just to make money. No controversy, no money, no job. End of story!