Just how easy is it to blame the lot of women in broadcast news on men, quite easy since it’s an industry dominated and run by men. However, it must also be considered that the women employed in it are fully in compliance as they appear in ‘trophy wife’ type hair and make-up. I always like to offer as an illustration, the 1943 movie musical production of ‘Cabin in the Sky’, what if the roles of the faithful wife were played by Lena Horne and the home wrecking other woman Ethel Waters, not likely with men in charge of the casting, they seem to know what a flirt looks like, as Waters does not as Horne does, and women reading the news on television, some in heels and wigs are indeed in full compliance. The recent death of Rose Marie Mazzetta reminded this blogger of her most noted quote, on television she played just a woman, not someone’s wife, mother or housekeeper, and I may add, her only extension in life was herself… not some perceived notion of a man of a woman, the television standard of T&A… Too harsh, perhaps not?

‘He murdered his mother’, tabloid headline newspaper writers take note, as if the current event is not horrifying enough like to add the word ‘own’, ‘He murdered his own mother’, this is just one example of the use, the over use, the misuse, in my opinion of the word ‘own’. He murdered his mother seem too tame of a description, it must be made more gruesome by making it ‘his own’, not someone else’s but ‘his own’, to murder what is ‘his own’.
Definition of own
1
: belonging to oneself or itself —usually used following a possessive case or possessive adjective cooked my own dinner was responsible for his own bad luck
2
—used to express immediate or direct kinship an own son an own sister my own family. Merriam-Webster online.
The addition of the word ‘own’ adds weight to the deed, of ‘betrayal’, of that person to whom has given life and perhaps had a hand in fostering that life. Another word adding weight is ‘gratitude’, the taking of that life clearly shows no thankfulness, is not grateful for that life and fails to appreciate a life that was taken, was not their ‘own’, falsely claiming ownership to end it at will.

So, did he murder his ‘own’ mother or did he just murder a mother, any mother that was not his ‘own’? Screaming tabloid headline writers, kindly tone down the rhetoric in favor of sound accurate reporting… to just a life was taken… and not fan the flame of motherhood into some outraged feeling of revenge…

One of the guests on the 12/24/2017 broadcast of CNN’s Reliable Sources was conservative political commentator S E Cupp, who was booked to offer some media wisdom when all the viewers got was a lot of empty ‘you know(s)’ which she invoked some eighteen times, how do I know this, I counted them. And oh yes, she also managed to throw in three ‘I mean(s)’ for some sort of balance of pre-thought, I guest. ‘You know’, and ‘I mean’ are rarely used if ever in any of her writings, I know this because I have read some of her stuff. Perhaps for her next appearance she should pre-write her remarks then simply read them aloud… As for her television make-up, that’s for another post…

If you are a public figure, an admired public figure, dye your hair, appear in public with synthetics on your head, no one really knows why, even if medical, is probably because of some perceived notion of an advantage in your professional life and of your personal self-worth, who knows? but this I do know, it breeds a sense of inadequateness in the young that may prove to be image damaging to them for the rest of their lives much as it has for you… is this the legacy you want to leave behind?

The “Make America great, again”, sentiment has been around and lived in the U.S. for years, long before it was ever expressed in the guise of this American President. The bogs surrounding New Orleans was considered wasted unused areas that could be drained, man could put it to better use making money off it as real estate, building homes, did not see the long-term value in protecting it, leaving it as mother nature intended, a buffer for the inner land during a storm, profit now, not later.

The Daily Mail.com headline below says it all without any shame.

“The generosity of American people will not be taken advantage of’: US envoy Nikki Haley announces $285m cut to UN following its vote against Trump recognizing Jerusalem as Israel capital” …

Like that kid who is withdrawing his ball from the game and going home, if he cannot control the situation then no one is going to benefit from the use of his ball. Never mind the good funding for starving children and refugees and peace keeping forces dispatched throughout the world, its ‘America first’, and the hell with the rest of the world. Even if there is some inefficiency in United Nations spending that is no reason to cut funding contributions, but reason for some sort of supervised correction.
More from the Daily Mail.com
“The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out in this assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation,’ Haley told member nations ahead of their vote”.

This blogger would like to remind this ambassador that nation sovereignty in the twenty-first century is not as it once was in past centuries; each member of the current world population has a solemn responsibility for the welfare of each other no one nation can afford to stand alone as one without taking the some of its whole into consideration.
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Aristotle…
And oh yes, “you can’t buy love” … or votes in the United Nations…

If it doesn’t advance the story, then it doesn’t belong on the screen, is unnecessary screen clutter, window dressing with no structured strategic value.

“The Long Con”, “TrumpCare Begins”, “Paranoia”, “Protecting Mueller”, “Thing 1”, “Thing 2”, “Low Ratings”, “You Pass It, You Own It”.

The above are all annoying banners displayed on the 12/21/2017 episode of “All In” with Chris Hayes on MSNBC, come to think of it, annoying is too mild a term, distraction, is more in tune to what viewers experienced watching this program and most others on this cable network, which is not unique among cable networks to some degree, they all annoy viewers with banners. Banners have become so numerous on the cables and on over the air broadcasts too, as to have become almost invisible, annoying, like in always there, hint, become invisible. Just who was the genus, short for, taxonomic ranking in broadcasting who came up this banner annoyance must have gotten high praise from superiors for the invention of this giant screen clutter and the allowance of its proliferation throughout the broadcast industry which I liken to blond hair dye and trashy make-up on the faces of female journalist, its here, now deal with it and accept it.

So how did we get here, you must know by now that broadcast media is a ‘me too’ industry, any perceived advantage is soon copied by others. It only took one network to start including their network logo in the corner of their screen, now they all do. Does anyone recall viewers demanding a news crawl along with a news program, but there they are? ABC World News Tonight has started running a news promo crawl under some of their commercials, look for it to spread everywhere and soon…

Governor Chris Christie-Facing Addiction Taskforce, are running promos all over the air ways and there is nothing wrong with that except that its 2017 and not 1971. 1971 was the year when a New York television reporter refused to cover up her hair with a wig or scarf to be able to cover a White House wedding as requested. This bit of cultural history did not interfere when personnel was selected to appear in the opioid promo since someone decided that the wearing of a wig on one of the women would not offend those that viewed it, after all, the newly New Jersey elected Lieutenant Governor wears one…

Any overly assuming youngster visiting a major league baseball park may only vaguely know that during the early history of the game it was extremely and rigidly segregated. Hard for some to believe today when some of its current super stars of the game are multiculturally inclined. What is even harder to believe is that when Hank Aaron was about the break the homerun record of Babe Ruth he would be the recipient of death threats and hate mail from those that didn’t want to see him break that record.

“Japan’s Babe Ruth is headed to the majors”, was the subject of a 60 Minutes piece today (12/24/2017).

The most captivating story in baseball this offseason involves a player who has yet to take his first swing-or, for that matter, his first pitch-in a Major League game. Shohei Ohtani, a fearsome pitcher AND prodigious hitter in Japan, announced his ambitions to take his dual talents to the Majors. Excerpted from an online piece by Jon Wertheim…

The question that is being wondered is, will Japan’s Shohei Ohtani be met with the same narrow mindedness of baseball fans of old or have they outgrown such bigotry in this the twenty-first century?

“Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone”. Joni Mitchell

It is always heartening to have confirmed something I’ve been saying for months, when MSNBC’s Ali Velshi subbing for Lawrence O’Donnell, that there is real value in the hand-off chatting between Rachel Maddow and O’Donnell, I even proposed a merger of the two programs and staffs called the Maddow-O’Donnell News Hours. “There’s gold in them thar hills”. I can’t believe the good fortune of having an extended segment version on the Last Word on the 29th of December as a holiday special, more of the above pleasurable banter which will now allow others to partake of this television venture they probably never considered as entertainment on a news program, well, “Whoop! there it is”

Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians. Johnson’s shadowy and poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given rise to much legend. One Faustian myth says that he sold his soul to the devil at a local crossroads of Mississippi highways to achieve success. Excerpted from Wikipedia…

The details of the legend are that he offered his guitar up to the devil in exchange for his soul, when it was returned it enabled him by playing it to become the master of the blues guitar. Which begs the speculation that there might be some sort of hidden Faustian pact forged between this American President, the devil and the American people. With promises in a year of a few gold pennies in pay checks before it’s all returned to the rightful owners, the well landed gentry, the one percent, the wealthiest citizens providing them with a lavish financial windfall that will not be believed until its delivered.