Talk shows: turning the other mean cheek

I’ve turned on the computer earlier in the day than I usually do, because it’s obvious that I need to share how fed up I am with something. I’ve even postponed the refreshing hair wash that I was going to give myself (using a wonderful Bath & Body Works Eucalptus Spearmint Volumizing Shampoo and Conditioner I’ve recently discovered). So haters who like to mock my lack of being “hot” can rest assured I’m typing this with hair that needs to be washed LOL. I need to get a few blogs out of the way first.

This blogging will condemn most conservative talk show hosts. Now, left wingers, do not rejoice, because I’m just adding them to my disappointment list, where you have already resided for a very long time. Because I “work” (the spiritual directing and writing) at home, and do not have a TV, my radio is on for most of the day. I enjoy getting to know the “radio personalities” and listening to the issues, and of course, being quite conservative in many issues (I used to be classical liberal but that has become depraved in values and stupid in vital issues that liberal has no meaning or significance in my life anymore) I’ve listened to quite a few of the conservatives. I used to listen to them on Fox, but have pretty much stopped. Patriotism is not jingoism alternated with celebrity scuttlebutt. The people who I cheered because they correctly identified and fought the “War on Christmas” (which is true and if anything is understated) have become boring in their yapping. So I’ve stopped listening to the ones I used to listen to on Fox (and you know who the big names are) because I just can’t stand their solution-less whining. True, O’Reilly has gone after lenient judges and pedophilia, which I applaud. But the growing emphasis on celebrity and pop psychology has turned me off. Hannity is just shrieking this past year, and his lack of charity toward a Catholic priest, turning a great chance to talk about morals and societal/individual pressures into a total waste, turned me off. I wrote to Colmes (his Fox talk show co-host) to say that while I don’t agree with Colmes about as much, gosh, at least he is civilized and kind. Even the daytime hosts that I used to like, Shepherd Smith, Neil Cavuto, John Gibson…. I don’t know if it’s producer advice or programming necessity but they, especially Smith, developed a slyness of style that didn’t work for Aaron Brown of CNN (remember him?) and is not working for them. Cavuto and Gibson are still very good and I’m not writing against them, but I’m saying since I dropped out of the line up, I don’t catch them anymore.

So I had turned to listening to Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and the Schnitt show. I’m listening to Beck now. I cannot believe what has happened to him. He has been virally attacked by a combination of Messiah complex and being barn sour. (For those of you who are non pastoral, barn sour refers to a horse that is kept in the barn so much that it turns ornery and mean). He has such a personal meanness now that I actually don’t recognize him. He thinks he has no choices but act this way, but he is wrong. When mocking opponents or stories that are or may be ridiculous he twists the knife in an unbelievable way (barn sour), and calls himself justified needing to “wake people up” (Messiah complex). Rush I dropped because his shtick is so obnoxious that it cannot be tolerated even as self parody anymore. Like the others he turns the other mean cheek. By this I mean that because liberals are mean and have virtually destroyed the morals of this country, he is satirical and mean in return. So I’ve turned him off too. Schnitt was an experiment, and there are times he was interesting to listen to. Same with McConnell. But then it seems as soon as I start listening, what I hear in the first few shows starts to evolve into something very unpleasant. It’s almost like just because I’m listening they think they can become smug, sly and hostile toward stupid call-ins and about their superior insight in general. And trust me, as with the average Joe, I go into every communications encounter erring on the side of openness and being ready to like the person and listen to their message (though of course I am not persuaded by anyone, since I already know my stance on all issues. I like to hear the public forum discussion however). So I’ve turned them off too. But Beck in particular has seemed to lose his balance and his mind the past few weeks. I’m not surprised because like I said, there is a pattern that I’ve noticed when I listen to “radio personalities” that at some point they become inflated to the point of being counterproductive, to put it politely. So it’s going to be “Bye, bye, bye Beck” I deem.

So what am I listening to? ESPN Sports Radio. Sports has always been the refuge of the real. Even if games are fixed and players are arrested, it still is a physical event where someone and a ball needs to get from one spot to another, and people enjoy watching it and talking about it. I’ve always enjoyed watching sports (when channel surfing I’d stop for just about any sport, if it flickered I’d find it interesting!) Now I’ve abandoned listening to the public forum of these vital, terribly important issues for the future of humanity because the meanness and self superiority of the radio and TV personalities have driven me away. Give me the Cowherd any day, and Jason Smith at night. Even if they personally have issues, LOL, at least the format requires them to talk about sports, which is good. People, this country and world are in grave trouble, and this is not a news flash. But what is a newsflash is that if I can’t stomach listening to people’s “public forum” discussion (something I have vigorously defended) and turn to sports instead, well, that’s not a good sign. Turning the other mean cheek never fixed a single problem on earth (or in those other two places either, by the way). It just takes everyone to that hell on earth place that humans seem to do so well.