Indeed, What the Hell is Wrong With Us?

As some of you know, I have a very talented brother who is a novelist, Bob. He's recently started a new blog and having read a particularly meaty post, I thought it only appropriate to respond to his very important query: What the Hell is Wrong With Us? Please read his original post on BobAlpi.com.

My answer: Money.

Bob has hit upon something that's disgusted me ever since I was introduced to tabloid newspapers by my friend's mom in ole Bombay, NY. At first I thought it was a joke since my friend and I often read MAD Magazine and watched Saturday Night Live. I soon found out however that people actually read tabloids as news. Over ten years later, it was start of the second Iraq war when my roommate was watching news about it on her TV. I was aghast at the broadcast because it was the most sensational newscast I'd ever seen while the pundits reported with actual excitement as movie trailer-worthy graphics exploded across the screen. I thought it must have been a tabloid show-- something out of a sci fi movie that used such news networks as an illustration of the degradation of society. I thought the news was very liberal. I had watched CNN now-and-then after the first Iraq war propelled the network to the fore in '91 and thought this had a similar tone-- although far more sensational. I asked my roommate what network it was-- FOX News. We didn't get Fox where I grew up and when I moved to bigger TV markets, I didn't watch much TV. I then learned it was supposed to be the conservative voice in TV news. What? After what I saw?! It was news marketed for easy consumption similar to propaganda, I thought. I wonder now if the second Iraq war is what propelled Fox News to the fore.