From Pew Research Center___Journalism & Media
By Amy Mitchell, Jeffrey Gottfried, Michael Barthel and Elisa Shearer
“In 2016, Americans express a clear preference for getting their news on a screen – though which screen that is varies. TV remains the dominant screen, followed by digital. Still, TV news use is dramatically lower among younger adults, suggesting further shake-ups to come”.

In view of the above I propose a little test for you…Early one morning, pick a few news stories, any group of stories that can be easy for you to follow for the rest of the day, at the end of the day, explore which cable news outlets covered them and how often. I think you will find some reported them a lot other’s not at all, some placed it as the lead story others in the middle or at the end of the program. I guarantee that with that studied information the next time you turn on a screen to watch the news you will be thinking twice and be in doubt as to why you have been short changing yourself on information in your choice of a news outlet. That’s all, class dismissed…

In view of mother nature’s recent devastation, Texas, Florida, Puerto Ricco, etc., placing untold financial burden on the federal government in recovery…tax cuts? must be fully explained how this administration expects to do more with less? The dirty little secret, they don’t, guaranteeing the increasing of the national debt to be paid by future generations of Americans all the while getting to continue to live a current high life style moving the obligation forward. However, the devil will always be in the details, in this case, undisclosed.
These days no one is safe from these so called ‘five-hundred-year-floods’.
Next week, the unnecessary unexpensed wall…

They have abandoned all that they knew, risked their lives along with all they had to get here, some with what is only on their backs or that a five-year-old child could carry, failure was not an option, success a must. Which is why immigration, whether legal or not has always been worth the risk and the back bone of the American success story. When one comes from little or nothing from a place where they are not allowed to have or build anything of worth, these American streets are truly paved with gold that few native-born fail to realize, it takes an outsider looking from on high to see what is at the feet of those whom have seen it all their lives. Arriving, living in cramp, unsafe conditions, deeply home sick, urged on by a bright promise of tomorrow, the American promise once dreamed of with only a hint of what it would or could be like to be free, truly free to be able to choose to have an opportunity, any opportunity to pursue a successful station in life. All the above will not easily be given up without a fight, even to the death, even to lie, cheat or steal, the risks are well worth the effort and then some. So, when a refugee is asked was the struggle of the journey, the hardship of it worth it, they just smile, looking up toward the sky, turning the question around, asking, what do you think? What would you do?

Unless the reporter/anchor says, “as you can see”, there is no real reason to watch any cable news outlet or some broadcast news programs, of course if you like television news print, there will always be a lot to read. How do I know this? I rarely watch the news only listen to it, try it for yourself, you will be able to do other things with your eyes and still be up to date on the latest news stories. By just listening to television news you may miss the parade of beauty queens in their assorted streaking dyed hair shades along with some congressional men and women in their synthetics. You will be able to forget and maybe miss the repetition of face images of at the mere mention of their name, how do you think Trump was able to become so well known, not by his reality television show, it was on newscasts after saying the most outrages things about the other candidates, I think I saw him on almost every channel, at the same time, live, before cheering crowds as a news event not to be missed, producers made sure of that, and by extension, ensuring his election as President along with the millions of dollars in advertising fees. President Trump was not born, he was made, media made, just as he is sucking up all this air time on his made-up NFL flag kneeing.

One more point of information, Don Rickles in not dead, he has been reincarnated as an insult comic living in the White House…

How do you like your journalism, bathed in glamor as practiced on television by women in dyed and synthetic hair seemly being upstaged by every sentence that comes out of their mouth, may I call it faddish journalism in the guise of making a fashion statement? These beauty queens of media can be seen all over the dials on the cables and broadcast newscasts, never displaying one hair of gray no matter how old they get, finding the visual fountain of youth, poisoning and influencing the image of women from cradle to coffin. Treating gray hair as some sort of disease that must be cured of. Two blonds will be making a loud metallic noise as they take their place in the forefront in the head uniform market of this era, Laura Ingraham and Shannon Bream on the Fox News Channel cementing in our minds that blonds are so much more smarter shattering the old Hollywood stereotype, let us not forget Megyn Kelly on NBC, with many of us hoping that there is enough hydrogen peroxide to sustain their careers, if not they will be making more. Since I have shown a critical light on the fake heads of women in televised news that has not stopped the males of the industry from partaking in the masquerade too, just not on an industrial scale, but they are out there, somehow, they don’t appear to look as foolish, what am I writing, when the truth is they look even more so after all they are men, but remember men are supposed to look foolish in dyed and toupeed hair, comedy scripts have been based on that look. Women in wigs, not so funny, unless the wind blows them off which is what I have been trying to do for years, wish me luck, right now all their wigging laughs are well hidden.

Richard Engel’s On Assignment on MSNBC opened well enough tonight, then slipped into annoyance with the banner, “state department officially notifies U.N. of U.S. withdrawal from climate accords”, Mr. Engels has said about the same thing using other words, the annoying part is that the banner stayed at the bottom of the screen for a long time as he went on to explain other subjects that will be focused on during the program. Then another annoyance was displayed, a squire promo in the corner of the screen promoting “Trump under siege” at 10p. Why am I mentioning any of the above, the brain power needed, used to process the banner and promo could have been better spent, used concentrating on Mr. Engels other opening remarks instead of the viewer reading, unconsciously, the banner and promo repeatedly. MSNBC is not alone among the cables of crowding their screens with a lot of unnecessary crap, and then some… Did I just hear someone shouting way in back, ‘news crawl’?

Without going too deep into the weeds, a few years ago returning home with a heavy purchase decided to take a NYC yellow taxi, discovered that since I last hailed one in the eighties very little has changed. So, it was little wonder that the concept of an Uber was ripe and could disrupt whatever was in place in so many cities around the world. The latest effort to turn back the clock is being played out in London. Unlike New York City, their underground shuts down at night, getting home from a late evening engagement can be problematic, what can be better than being able summon transport by using a mobile rather than standing on a corner trying to hail a motor car driven by a somewhat untraceable stranger. As far as I can tell nothing would have stopped the current crop of the standard unionized London black cabs from entering the twenty-first century using any of the current technologies to get the job done better but instead seemed would rather remain doing business as they have done since the horse and buggy days (one driver has been doing so for thirty-nine years) and as the age of progress started to pass them by then and only then did they protest claiming progress, meaning life is unfair. Oh yes, one more important consideration, Uber is cheaper…

Star Trek: Discovery will have its world premiere Sunday, 09/24/2017, on the CBS Television Network, first aired in 1966 for three seasons on the NBC Television Network. What is not so well known what ever happened to that network executive or executives that killed the grouse, the common name for a game bird, particularly the American grouse, as in original episodic television as envisioned by Gene Roddenberry, the golden grouse that later bloomed into an American franchised Swan of unusual beauty, talent and excellence into the revenue power house that has been on display in continuous innervations all over the world to this day, that has never shrank from popularity. About those network executives, would killing be too merciful for them?

Three distinguished female print journalist representing prestigious news organizations appeared this morning on one of the cable outlets, I’m guessing all in their late forties, early fifties, I could have researched their ages but did not, discussing the Cassidy-Graham health care bill, sounding like they have researched the subject thoroughly, stopped me in my tracks when I considered the amount of time they also must have spent preparing their hair, dying and in some cases wigging for this appearance must have been equal to if not more so then their health care research.

Raise your hand if you watch a news program because the female(s) anchor(s) dye their hair, if you were to ask the station managers, they will tell you that it’s not a requirement. Ok, raise your hand if you watch a news program because the female(s) anchor(s) wear a wig, were you to ask the station managers, they will claim that it is not a requirement. Ok, then why are so many news programs featuring females with obvious dyed hair, some in obvious wigs. Station managers, why? So, when is ‘not a requirement’, necessary, very often, and is very often an essential, answer, a resounding yes, just look around and count the heads… Next week…greasy red lips on male anchors…