5% pure water, 95% raw sewage

I have had an interesting experience the last week. I have been traveling on business, I am in a small (nearly abandoned) town out in the middle of the desert, a long way from anywhere. While here, I have had little to do, I am not here to work, I am here because of the time sensitive nature of the work being performed, they need people here to fix things immediately if they break, I am on that team. So, basically, I sit around and wait for things to break. So far, nothing has broke.

While I’m here I have had unlimited access to internet and television. I have internet at home so this was no big deal, although I have spent much more time on it than usual and have been surprised at the seemingly bottomless pit of mormon-related blogs. It would be impossible for me to comment on every topic that interests me, or read every post I think I could benefit from – or comment on and may be benefit others. I have even been able to put a couple posts on my own blog.

What has interested me is what is on the television. We do not have a television at home so I am not aware of the current programming. I have traveled for business before, but usually stay only a night or two in a hotel and rarely turn on the TV. This time though, I have watched many shows, and have been appalled. I have found it interesting that in the past, when I tell people I don’t have a TV, it is a very common response to hear something like “I only watch the Discovery, History, and Learning Channels”. Yea, right.

Overall, due to the excessive amounts of annoying commercials, I was not able to make it through an entire show without walking out of the room for a while then coming back, I did watch a few all the way through, but this was an exception rather than a rule.

It seems there is endless ways to kill people and have detectives discover how it happened, all in less than an hour. I had heard about CSI and Law and Order and was interested to watch them but was surprised that there are many, CSI: NY, CSI: Miami, Law and Order, Law and Order: SVU, Law and Order: CI, etc, etc, etc. I tried to watch at least one of each, as well as; NCIS, JAG, The First 48, Without a Trace, and others I probably can’t recall. Very few did I make it all the way through, a couple I turned off after just a couple minutes. CSI: Miami is terrible, the head guy, Horatio, is so arrogant as to surpass any thread of believability, I saw the first five minutes of this one a couple times and they all start out exactly the same: hot scene in Miami with attractive young people, someone gets murdered, cops show up to investigate, someone makes a comment/asks a question to Horatio, he makes an arrogant, brash remark – cut to someone screaming as the opening credits begin. Another one, Law and Order: CI is similar in that the main detective (I forget his name) is so condescending towards the people he talks to as to make me want to punch him right through the TV screen. Law and Order: SVU is dedicated solely to the most “heinous” crimes, those of a sexual nature. Unbelievable. We call this entertainment. Something I noticed as a reoccurring trend was the infusion of homosexuality in these scripts. The victim / criminal was frequently a homosexual whether publicly or secretively.

I did try to watch a couple programs on the Discovery Channel, History Channel, TLC, etc. These too, were hard to sit through. They had the same annoying commercials. A lot of the shows were “reality” type shows, which I have a hard time getting into. The shows that were actually trying to teach you something were taught at what I would guess to be about a third grade level, and at a pace so slow it is almost insulting. They teach the politically correct, or accepted form of a topic, rather than how it really is, and they all seem to follow the same pattern; explain something very slowly with an announcer that is overly dramatic – cut to commercials – review everything you taught before the commercials and add just a little tidbit more – cut to commercials – repeat. A two hour show could be summed up in less than 20 minutes without the commercials and incessant reviewing. Many shows on these programs go deep into investigations on some of the worst acts ever committed. Murders, rapes, manipulation, self-degradation, etc.

The news channels are even worse. Fox News, MSNBC, Bloomberg, the many CNN’s, etc. Where is the news in those? Especially now with the elections, they talk and talk about the elections but never say anything, it is amazing. Quite the art they have perfected. All news channels have agendas that are blatantly obvious, I have a hard time believing other people don’t see it, unless it is a case of the boiling frog syndrome.

Granted, I only have had the opportunity to watch these shows for a week, and did not watch everything I could have. There probably is some quality programming on (I did watch general conference on it) but I am reminded of an essay by Barbara Kingsolver who makes a comment along the lines of “would you want a faucet in your house that delivered 5% pure water and 95% raw sewage?” She was talking about television, I always thought it was a cute statement but was not fully aware of what she meant. I think I have a better idea now.