I had a very nice Thanksgiving here in Connecticut, and am headed back to DC tomorrow, via NYC.
As a cranky aside to follow my somewhat-cranky prior post: My typical abstention from television was broken by being at my parents' house, and it reminded me how inane television news coverage is and how it lacks any sense of proportion. The latest round of push and pull over airport security turns into "OMG! Crisis at the airport! Rebellion in the security line!"
This also shows up in coverage of holiday shopping. I realize that Black Friday is tailor-made for TV news, but I do not under any circumstances want to hear another story about it. And more broadly, news coverage of holiday shopping is all organized around breathless anticipation of "Will consumers spend more than last year?" It starts to make you feel that if you're not planning to spend more, you're just not doing your part. The fact that gauging whether or not more crap was purchased than last year is seen as the best barometer of the "success" of a holiday season is just kind of depressing. Time to bring in Reverend Billy.
No comments:
Post a Comment