Over informed?

As I have discussed more times than I feel necessary, I don't watch a whole hell of a lot of TV. I prefer my life this way. More than anything else, I despise the news. It seems like any time I am cruising up or down the dial, there is some news broadcast telling me what is wrong with people around me, be it local, national, or international. Quite frankly, I find watching the news painfully depressing, so I try my best not to. Like so many people of my generation, I get the bulk of my news from the internet. It's pretty catch-as-catch-can, but it assures that I only really hear about the major events, which really are more or less the only things worth fretting over in the first place.

So tonight, I happened to be spending a little quality time in front of the toob, which is a rarity in itself, and I happened to see a commercial from a local network. This is not the network that decided to come up with the harebrained scheme to run a news broadcast at 9:00 p.m., for all those people who can't wait that ever important hour between the time that the hour long 7:00 p.m. newscast ends and the standard 10:00 p.m. newscast begins. No, this network actually keeps a generally standard news schedule in the day/evening time. However, it was their morning broadcast that struck me as a result of this commercial.

Now, before I get into the inanity that you'll hear about momentarily, I will mention yet again that I am not a morning person. On average, the time from when my feet hit the floor when I'm out of bed to the time that I step out my front door never exceeds fifteen minutes. This leaves no time for news broadcasts, no time for breakfast, no time for much of anything outside of the morning ritual of tooth brushing, deodorizing, getting dressed, and packing up. I don't understand morning news in general. I really don't understand people who wake up any time much before six or six thirty in the morning. But then again, I am sitting here at ten minutes to two, wide awake.

But I've kept you in suspense long enough -- on to this commercial. This commercial was for the morning news broadcast that started at 4:00 a.m. Yes, four in the morning. The time I tend to go to sleep on a Saturday night. Now, I understand that there are some people who have to wake up that early. It's understandable, especially if they face an epic commute or start work at some ungodly early hour. I'd like to believe if you have to wake up every day that early, you don't do so to watch news. Maye there are folks out there who like to use the morning news as background noise. I prefer good ol' music. Now, it's not bad enough that this news broadcast starts some two and a half hours before sunrise -- the broadcast lasts until ten in the morning. Yes, ten. Six fucking hours. That is literally one quarter of a broadcast day. Is television in such a sad state that a regular broadcast TV network thinks it's a smart move to dedicate a quarter of their day to one single newscast. Yes, I know, people wake up at all times in that range, and it's probably the same thing cycled throughout the morning with a lot of weather and traffic and all that rubbish. But come on now -- six hours. That's about two thirds of an average person's workday.

Is this what we've come to? Do that many people care? What the hell ever happened to weekday morning cartoons? Now that was something worth waking up for: I remember all through grade school, maybe even some of high school, I would get up early just so I could watch The Jetsons while I ate my breakfast. If that were to be an option these days, and I could do so uninterrupted, it would be the highlight of my day. Everyday. But no - we have six hours of newscast instead. Thank heavens; now I can stay up to date on coups, regicide, terrorism, and political scandal all before my Apple Jacks. Thank heavens for the information age.