We recently stopped taking the paper. We now either get the news from the Internet or television. I admit I really haven’t watched TV newscasts in years with the exception if the President was giving the State of Union address or if it was election night.

The national and local news broadcasts aren’t even news broadcasts. It’s sensationalism with a little news with mixed in, newstainment if you will. Ed Murrow would be spinning in his grave if he could see the current television broadcasts. I am bothered and disturbed. Are they not great stories out there? Are we, the American public, just that disinterested? It seems to me that we are more interested what trouble Paris, Britney and Lindsey are stirring up than social issues like global warming, AIDS, medical break-thrus, ethics, and dare I say economics.

I realize that economics is not an exciting topic for most. Sensationalism sells ratings. Ratings sell ads and so the cycle goes. The networks are not here to give us the information that we need. They are not here to spoon feed our over stimulated brains the news we need. The networks exist to make money, plain and simple. Therefore, since we are more interested in entertainment world’s gossip, we are caught it the soap opera world of Hollywood. Instead of asking questions like why do feminist want us see the sexes as the same when men and women can capitalize on their respective differences or stories on rights and responsibilities that come with extensive rights. We, the American public, would rather know why we haven’t seen baby Suri or how can a basketball star file for divorce on the grounds of mental and physical cruelty by his much shorter wife.

Stories about certain social topics seem to only serve the agendas of either the left or the right. I believe most of us are somewhat in the middle. I don’t have any answers but I do feel this lack of interest of what is really going on around us makes us a much weaker nation.