Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

SHANNON BREAM - MY CHOICE TO REPLACE MEGYN KELLY AT FOX NEWS

I've always considered Shannon Bream quick, articulate, and an exceptionally talented news person at Fox.   Yesterday I learned she is a 1993 graduate of Liberty University.  Her walk with the Lord is upfront and full of vitality.  Here she is delivering the 2013 commencement address at Liberty University.

Update: It was announced today that Tucker Carlson will replace Megyn Kelly at the 9:00 PM program and Martha MacCallum will replace Tucker Carlson at his 7:00 PM slot.  Both are good people! 

NEIL COVUTO RESPONDS TO OBAMA'S DIATRIBE AGAINST FOX NEWS

Text:

OBAMA:  If you’ve talked to somebody who said, ‘Well, I don’t know. I was watching FOX News and they said this is horrible…”

NEIL CAVUTO:  Mr. President, we at FOX News are not the problem. I hate to break it to you, sir. you are. Your words are, your promises are. We didn’t sell this healthcare law, sir. You did. Remember this?

OBAMA:  If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period.

NEIL CAVUTO:  Not so.  Mr. President, tell that to tens of thousands of retirees at IBM and Time Warner and dozens of others, who have been dumped from their coverage and told to find their own coverage. Now, FOX News didn’t break that news to them, Mr. President, their companies did.

FOX News didn’t push more of those firms to hire part-time workers, your healthcare law did.

FOX News didn’t incentivize fast-food restaurants to scale back their benefits, your healthcare law did.

DID "THE BIBLE" TV SERIES CHOOSE THE BEST STORIES TO TELL?

I like Professor Peter Enns' suggestion on this subject (though not on many other subjects).  He cites Victor Matthews' book, Old Testament Turning Points: The Narratives That Shaped a Nation in which Mathewes cites eight turning points in the Old Testament narrative.   Enns likes Matthews' suggestions, saying, 

“The Bible” puts the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLABle. Although the series follows the storyline of the Old Testament, the producers opted to go more with the “big names”–let’s call it “celebrity”–approach to teaching the Bible than than the “stages of the story” approach as Matthews does.  [emphasis in the original]

That’s why Samson and Daniel each get their own hour and all we see of  Solomon is him playing with a model of the temple as a boy rather than lingering for a few minutes on how he caused a civil war.  Sheesh.

So, given the precious 10 hours, here’s what I would have done.

I would have given the last 3 hours to Jesus and the book of Acts, ending with Paul’s imprisonment in Rome. Telling the story of the Christian Bible is, after all, the point of the series, and giving about 65 years of history 1/3 of the airtime sounds right to me.

The remaining 7 hours I would divide this way.

Adam (and the flood as a transition to Abraham): .5 hours

Abraham (with Jacob and Joseph as a transition to Moses): 1.5 hours

Moses (go nuts with the plagues and the Red Sea, but don’t forget to linger a bit on Mt. Sinai) 1 hour

David  (leading off with conquest and judges and ending with the birth of Solomon) 1.5 hours

Divided Monarchy and Fall of the Northern Kingdom (beginning with Solomon’s screw ups and ending with Assyrian invasions, include a prophet or two) 1 hour

Fall of the Southern Kingdom and Return from Exile (leading off with maybe Josiah’s reforms, including Babylonian invasion, and return and rebuilding of the temple) 1.5 hours

As a transition to the New Testament, they could talk about the challenges of maintaining Jewish ways of life and frustrated messianic hopes in the centuries after the exile. Then, enter Jesus to redefine Jewish messianic hope.

That’s a lot to cover and the same sorts of adaptations would need to happen as we see in the series now. A lot would have to be left out. Still, it’s better than giving Samson and Daniel about 2 of the 10 hours, dragging out Abraham, and dealing with the post exilic period in literally one sentence.

Me: I think such a scheme makes a lot of sense.  It certainly would offer a better overall view of the narrative structure of the Old Testmant.   Enns correctly says,

. . .  most of the Old Testament is concerned about land: getting it, settling in it, keeping it, getting kicked out of it, and in the case of the southern kingdom of Judah, coming back home.

Related posts:

    -  WEIRD THINGS HAPPENED ON THE SET OF 'THE BIBLE'

    -  HISTORY CHANNEL'S "THE BIBLE" REACHED 13.1 MILLION VIEWERS

    -  WHY THE BIBLE SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

    -  ORAL TRADITION AND THE NEW TESTAMENT

"THE BIBLE" TV MINISERIES BEGINS TONIGHT ON THE HISTORY CHANNEL

The 10-hour, five-week miniseries,“The Bible,” premieres Sunday, March 3, at 8 p.m. ET on The History Channel. Scroll down for a useful news piece published by the Huffington Post.

 

 

Jaweed Kaleem of the Huffington Post writes:

One is best known for playing a kind-hearted angel on a hit television drama. The other is the man behind more than a dozen record-breaking reality shows. But husband and wife Roma Downey ("Touched by an Angel") and Mark Burnett ("Survivor," "The Voice") say their biggest achievement is yet to come -- and it offers a stark contrast to the primetime roles that have made them sought-after Hollywood stars.

Called "The Bible" and set to premiere Sunday on the History Channel, their new production is a 10-hour scripted miniseries that aims to take viewers on a dramatic, special effects-filled journey through the world's most popular book, from the story of Noah's Ark to the Exodus and the life of Jesus.

"We're trying to tell the story of God's love for his people," said Downey, who plays the role of Mary in the five-episode series.

She and Burnett were inspired after watching "The Ten Commandments," the famed -- but dated -- 1956 film by Cecil B. DeMille that makes its rounds in television reruns during major holidays. "We saw this as an opportunity engage people in new and exciting ways to consider these stories and re-experience them," said Downey, who conceived the project with Burnett nearly four years ago.  [more...]

TV EMBRACES ITS DARK SIDE

This Wall Street Journal article is subtitled,"Broadcast Networks Add Edgy Dramas to Their Lineup for coming Season."  Gory stuff and defiled imaginations are in the offing.

My stomach sickens at the news. 

QUICK TAKES

- - Newt: Would ABC ever air a show that portrays Muslims the way "GCB" portrays Christians?

         - - George Will - As Government becomes bigger, it becomes more lawless.       

         - - Tina Kobe (a sharp young commentator at HotAir.com), takes Bill Maher to task for his vicious, ignorant attack on homeschoolers. This is a MUST READ if you want to know about homeschooling successes.

- - Newest Limbaugh advertiser: Twitchy.com   (Twitchy.com is a social media aggregator started by Michelle Malkin, a cracker jack of a blogger who began HotAir and has now added Twitchy to her entrepreneurial effort.    The full announcement of her new Twitchy.com ad buy with Rush Limbaugh is here.)

FROZEN PLANET SCANDAL: SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH DEFENDS FAKE POLAR BEAR COVERAGE

This is very sad.  A lot of footage has been exposed as a sham.  (HT: Drudge)  So now we learn that documentaries, too, are manipulated and manufactured, while all the while we naively thought we were looking at the "real thing" in the wild.  No. 

The culture's "trust level" takes another dive. 

CONDI RICE VS. LAWRENCE O'DONNELL

Several people on TV are unbearable to watch.  One such is MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell.  I came across a recent interview  he conducted with Condi Rice (video and transcript here)   It's worth viewing if only to witness the gauche, condescension, fact-challenged rudeness O'Donnell displays.  After seeing it you will have had your fill of O'Donnell, and never need view him again.  Condi Rice not only holds her own, but whips him good.  [Leftists and liberals disagree.  You decide}

A couple of years ago (it hardly seems that long), I posted another example of O'Donnell's ignorance of  a subject on which he was pontificating.   Hugh Hewitt produced the take down.

RECOMMENDED TV M0VIE: "FAREWELL MR. KRINGLE"

Light, clean, wholesome entertainment is getting hard to come by.  Hallmark Channel's "Farewell Mr. Kringle" fits the bill.  I saw it last weekend, and it will be shown again on the Hallmark Channel at various times during the holiday season including Friday, December 10th, 8:00 PM (EST) and Saturday Dec. 11th, at 2:00 PM.   A feature article on the screenwriter, Robert Tate Miller, can be found here.

WHY DOES FOX EMPLOY GERALDO RIVERA?

My guess is so FOX can claim a flaming liberal on its payroll.  And flaming liberal he is, complete with the trademark bias, put-downs, unfairness, false equivalences, and nastiness we've come to associate with  his ideological compatriots.  For  the above reasons, whenever his program comes on, my TV goes off.   Except last night. 

Pamela Geller had announced on her blog she would be on his program, and so I tuned in.  Geraldo's treatment of Geller was utterly disgusting.  I searched for an e-mail address to FOX to vent my disgust but couldn't find it.   Geller describes her experience below.  As a viewer, I can vouch for the truth of everything she says:

UPDATE: Geraldo Hit-Job Interview on YouTube

"BOOK TV" OFFERINGS THIS WEEKEND

I wish our cable system carried "Book TV."  I regard Ayaan Hirsi Ali as one of the most remarkable women of our time.  Here's the announcement:

Saturday 10 PM, Sunday 9 PM,

Monday 12 PM and 3 PM ET 

 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations, interviewed by Paula Dobriansky

In her interview, Ms. Ali discusses her memoir about coming to the United States and the life she left behind.  In this follow-up to her bestselling Infidel, she also mentions how the U.S. should handle Islamic fundamentalism, within and outside its borders.   Ayaan Hirsi Ali is interviewed by Paula Dobriansky, former Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs and current member of the Leadership Council at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.


Another program looks great as well:

Saturday 1 PM ET

Book TV's coverage of the 2010 Eagle Forum Collegians Summit:

The Eagle Forum Collegians Summit is a conference that brings together conservative speakers, authors and college students held annually in Washington, DC. Our coverage from this year's forum includes:

Tom Pauken, Bringing America Home: How America Lost Her War and How We Can Find Our Way Back

Larry Schweikart, 7 Events That Made America America -- And Proved That the Founding Fathers Were Right All Along 

Ian Fletcher, Free Trade Doesn't Work: What Should Replace it and Why

George Allen, What Washington Can Learn From the World of Sports 

Chris Horner, Power Grab: How Obama's Green Policies Will Steal Your Freedom and Bankrupt America

David Kupelian, How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America 

Michael Coffman, Rescuing a Broken America: Why America is Deeply Divided and How to Heal it Constitutionally

GOLD MINE: C-SPAN OPENS ITS ARCHIVES TO THE INTERNET

This means, as Joe Carter points out, free online access to the more than 160,000 hours(!) of television footage.  Carter helpfully suggests:

Check out some of the videos of First Things‘ editors Richard John Neuhaus, Joseph Bottum, James Nuechterlein; FT contributors Mary Eberstadt, Alan Jacobs, and Yuval Levin; and FT board members Hadley Arkes, James Burtchaell, Eric Cohen, David Dalin, Midge Decter, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Suzanne Garment, Robert George, Mary Ann Glendon, Russell Hittinger, Glenn Loury, George Marsden, Wilfred M. McClay, Gilbert Meilaender, David Novak, Michael Novak, George Weigel, William Burleigh, and Peter Thiel.

Happy days are here again!

Since I am currently reading Alan Jacobs' The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis (as I  mentioned before), I enjoyed watching and listening to Jacobs discuss his book at the Cambridge Forum.  In his brief talk (followed by a Q&A), he mentioned the impact Lewis had on one of his students, Kenneth Tynan, who would go on to excel as a dramatist, a screenwriter, a critic, an essayist, a director, and a theatrical impresario, a man given to "pushing boundaries" (he was the director of the first all-nude musical, "Oh Calcutta!").  His "peacockish" (Jacobs' term) flamboyance might lead us to suppose his relationship with Lewis would be rocky, but it wasn't.  Tynan struggled

COULD THERE BE A BETTER NEWS NETWORK THAN FOX? YES!!

Pamela Geller (of Atlas Shrugs) argues the case persuasively.  She writes:  [I provided the explanatory links]

The only reason FOX does as staggeringly well as it does is because the other networks are so bad. The only reason FOX has no rival is because the competition is

so completely and utterly  corrupt. They aren't news. They are paid cheerleaders of the Democrat party. FOX presents the conservative view as well as the liberal view. It's that the competition is so bad, the bar so low, that FOX has no rival.

Imagine a news network that actually addressed the greatest threat to western civilization.

Imagine a news network that reported on the 14,793 Islamic attacks around the world, and the persecution of Christians and Jews, and actually explained why and how it was happening.

Imagine a news network that told us what the Organization of the Islamic Conference really was, and how they are behind the Wilders prosecution, and the Danish cartoon crisis, and the freedom of speech crime laws.

Imagine a news network that covered the trial of the century, nay, the crime of the century, Geerrt Wilders, with the wall to wall coverage it deserves. [Wikipedia on Wilders here]

Imagine a news network that actually had Robert Spencer, Wafa Sultan, Ibn Warraq, Nonie Darwish as contributors.

Imagine a news network that had Steve Coughlin as its military correspondent.  [Backround here]

Imagine a news network that covered the people's movement accurately and fully as the others covered Casey Anthony, Natalee Holloway, car chases, snowstorms, etc.
Imagine... (I'll stop channeling Lennon here.)

SITTING IN AN AUTO REPAIR SHOP WATCHING THE TV SHOW "THE VIEW"

I was pleased to clip an auto dealer's 1/2 price coupon for an oil change.  I knew the dealership would try to sell me "needed repairs," but that was okay.  The oil change price was great, and I wasn't under any further obligation.  As I sat with several others in the waiting room we were assaulted by -- you guessed it -- a television set (how does one escape?) turned on first to "Dr. Oz," and then to "The View."  I had a book with me, and actually managed to read a few pages, but at the same time overheard some of the "stuff" taking place on TV.   The potty-mouthed "View" stunned me.  Questions rose in my mind:  "Do people watch this stuff?  Doesn't the pollution disgust them?"  The subject matter and language reminded me of a Bible verse:  "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth."  (Ephesians 4:29)  I had never thought much about that verse until today.  Now I think I understand a little better what the Apostle Paul was getting at.

The full verse reads: "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."  (ESV)  What a beautiful verse!

INTRODUCING "NEWSREAL" BLOG

I read quite regularly David Horowitz's FrontPageMag website.  Today I learned that some of his own articles are cross-posted at "NewsReal" blog, a "David Horowitz Freedom Center" outlet with the subtitle, "Keeping the Cable Guys Honest."  I hadn't known of the blog before.  Drop over and see the conservative critique of leftist stuff that appears on cable.  Click here.

TELEVISION

HT: The Constructive Curmudgeon

TV NEWS AS "ENABLERS" OF MASS SHOOTINGS

Mona Charen decries wall-to-wall coverage of shootings by cable TV. 

Once again the cable news programs are going wall to wall covering the latest mass shooting. All other programming is on hold. I've said this before. When the news shows do this they are guaranteeing the next atrocity. A twisted desire for fame and attention drives some of this. Recall that when the networks were having a problem with streakers at televised football games, they simply turned their cameras away. The problem evaporated. These mass shootings are a little more complicated, and news organizations cannot completely ignore them. But they don't need to stop everything to cover them. And they certainly should never provide stories about the shooter's problems, failed romances, experience with teasing, or political views.  [my bolding]

Makes a lot of sense to me.

NBC Rejects Pro-Life Super Bowl Ad Educating Viewers on Obama and Abortion

Here's the rejected video.  For commentary, click here and here.  This is the same video that I posted about earlier that is running on select markets of  BET television.

Life

An ad appearing in select markets of Black Entertainment Television:  Click here.

WHO WATCHES MORE TV? THE YOUNG OR THE OLD?

Older folk watch much more TV.   Paul Bond writes:

The older you get, the more you watch, according to a report due out today from Deloitte indicating that "Millennials," the generation of 14- to 25-year-olds, watches just 10.5 hours of TV a week.

That compares to 15.1 hours for those belonging to Generation X (ages 26-42), 19.2 hours for Baby Boomers (43-61) and 21.5 hours for Matures (62-75).

. . . But while Millennials are watching the least amount of TV, they are spending the most time with media in general, making that up with video games, music and the Internet.

Just don't expect them to spend too much time worrying about such things as news and current events, according to the Deloitte study dubbed "The State of the Media Democracy.  [more...]

Me: These findings are about what I would have expected.

DID ANYBODY GROW UP WITH COWBOYS AS HEROES? (I DID)

                            

                     If you did too, you've love this . . .

MORE ON TONY SNOW

Bill Kristol tells us that Tony Snow was an avid reader of C.S. Lewis.  How marvelous!  No doubt Lewis offered significant underpinning to Tony's exuberance, gratitude, and joy -- all qualities emphasized and illustrated in Lewis's own life and writings. Although it had not crossed my mind that Tony Snow was a reader of Lewis, I should have guessed it.

Following are some excerpts from Kristol's tribute, but you've got to read the whole thing; it's that good:

. . But I’ll remember Tony Snow more for his character than his career. I’ll especially remember the calm courage and cheerful optimism he displayed in his last three years, in the face of his fatal illness...

Tony was one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet — kind, helpful and cheerful. But underlying these seemingly natural qualities was a kind of choice: the choice of gratitude.Tony thought we should be grateful for what life has given us, not bitter or anxious about what it hasn’t.

TONY SNOW DEAD AT 53

I read the news on Drudge a moment ago and felt sad and ill.  The last I had heard, Tony Snow was doing  better.  What a wonderful man!  I look forward to reading eulogies that will celebrate this man's life.

Update:

Byron York - "a breath of fresh air"

Shannen Coffin - "To call him a "rock star" was an understatement. He brought substance to every meeting he was in and every subject he covered... But what struck me most about him was his ceaseless optimism.. He had a smile that lit up a room and could put a friend at ease in an instant...

TV SITCOMS TAKE THE NEXT STEP DOWNWARD

- Update 8/6/08 - AP article: Network TV  likes sex, but not in marriage.

- Ed Veith in a World magazine article writes about the "new normal" which represents yet another step downward. After mentioning previous descents, he says:

In "The Office," arguably the funniest show on TV, it is simply taken for granted that unmarried people are having sex. there is no need for innuendo.  The characters talk about their sex lives openly, and extramarital sex is normal. . . .

In the TV culture, teen sex, single adult sex, and—in the most dramatic shift in sexual mores in history—homosexuality are all perfectly acceptable, unproblematic, and normal. Conversely, traditional sexual morality is presented as weird, strange, and out of the mainstream.

Now we have "Swingtown," a new series from CBS -- not pay TV or cable but a mainline broadcast network.  "Swingtown" is about wife-swapping.

(more . . .)

25 Million People Who Rely On MSM News Left in the Dark

Duane Patterson, Radio Blogger, did a good job analyzing last night's newscasts. Highly recommended.

Premier.tv: Christian Television from the UK (Streaming Video)

I bumped into Premier.TV quite by accident. I was looking at a website featuring articles and lectures by Dr. N.T. Wright, the Bishop of Durham, England, and one of the foremost New Testament scholars of our day.  The N.T. Wright website linked to Premier.TV for a streaming video interview with Bishop Wright.  A list of other programs and interviews can be found on the right side of the web page.  It looks to me like Premier.tv offers a great variety of programing and I intend to return to this website often.

Sister Toldjah Demolishes Whoopi Goldberg's Views on Abortion

I have a link to Sister Toldjah on the side of my blog, but I hadn't visited the blog in a long time.  Her post on abortion is excellent.  It's full of powerful insights, and reads as follows:

Another day, another example of rampant idiocy on the set of ABC’s The View.

Just one day after View co-host Whoopi Goldberg declared to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she’d enjoy a threesome with her and Pelosi’s husband Paul, who was sitting in the audience, Goldberg saw fit to chide conservative co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck over her anti-abortion views. Justin McCarthy writes:

Is Whoopi Goldberg becoming the Rosie O’Donnell type bully? It appeared that way on the October 3 edition of “The View.” A discussion about Hillary Clinton’s $5,000 a baby entitlement plan quickly descended into a heated exchange between Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Whoopi Goldberg about abortion.

When Hasselbeck noted that $5,000 a baby could lead to fewer abortions in the world, Whoopi told Hasselbeck to

Anybody for a Media Fast?

Justin Taylor writes:

One of the best parts of my vacation was being without a computer. Good for the soul!

I thought back to something that Doug Groothuis (philosophy professor at Denver Seminary) requires of his students:

I routinely require my students to engage in some kind of "media fast," in which they abstain from an electronic medium for at least one week. During this time they are required to reflection several portions of Scripture--the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the fruit of the Spirit, etc.--in light of their experiences. In the six or so years I have been assigning this fast, the results have

Mother Skylark Has No Use for Television

Homeschooling mom, Mother Skylark declares: " We are a no-TV family. We have a TV set which we use to watch films and videos but we have chosen not to have a constant barrage of unfilterable junk consistently streamed into our home."   She says a lot more worthy of noting.   She also provides a link to a mom who describes the unfair, manipulative practices of Dr. Phil's TV show.   Hint:  In her experience, he's not  the fair-minded, wise fellow he appears to be. 

EVALUATING "CNN PRESENTS: AFTER JESUS"

Dr. Albert Mohler does a good job evaluating "CNN Presents: After Jesus," a special airing on CNN Friday Dec. 22nd at 10:00 PM (EST), Saturday Dec. 23rd at 8:00 PM, and Sunday Dec. 24th at 8:00 PM.  Mohler critiques the program from an evangelical point of view.  He points out strengths and weaknesses, and laments that CNN did not include an evangelical theologian,  historian, or New Testament scholar such as  N. T. Wright, D. A. Carson, or Darrell Bock.  On balance, though, Mohler says that although he found a good bit to criticize, "Nevertheless, when the entire program is reviewed, I would judge the project to be more even-handed and responsible than I had at first expected." 

New Testament scholar Scot McKnight suggests that there is plenty to like and a good bit to disagree with in CNN's production.   He notes that the theme of the night was the diversity of Christianity in the first three centuries.  He then asks a good question:

How can we talk about the rise of orthodoxy and skip over Irenaeus, Ignatius, Tertullian and Athanasius — and show how they responded in their contexts to the challenges and gave major voices to the ongoing development of orthodoxy? We virtually jump from the NT to Constantine, and give the impression that orthodoxy dropped out of the sky when Constantine needed a political expedient to unify the empire.

ON CESAR MILLAN AND "THE DOG WHISPERER" TV PROGRAM

Where have I been?  Until last week I had never heard of Cesar Millan and "The Dog Whisperer" TV program.  The person who told me about the program said she has learned as much about human beings as about dogs, and has taped many programs.  Then today I came across an internet article stating that a new season of Dog Whisperer shows begins tonight. 

The following items from the published interview caught my attention:

I teach owners how to practice exercise, discipline and then affection, which allows dogs to be in a calm, submissive state.   Most owners in America only practice affection, affection, affection — which does not create a balanced dog.

Q: When you go into a situation with  large dogs that are acting aggressively, how do you keep control of the situation?

A: First, it is important not to classify a problem dog by its breed.   All dog problems come from two things: lack of exercise and lack of leadership. That can be a problem for any dog — no matter what size or breed. I approach the situation with a calm, assertive energy.  Your dogs need you to be the pack leader.

Q: What is the best advice for new dog owners?

A: Take your dog on a 45-minute power walk every morning. But, you must use the proper method in walking your dog — when leaving the house, make sure you always walk out the door ahead of your dog to demonstrate who is boss; make sure the dog is not in front of you on the walk.

Alas, I have just discovered that my cable TV service doesn't carry the program!

The Tyranny of TV Everywhere

Froma Harrop hit the nail on the head with her recent column.    She wrote, “I watch television, and I use it as a drug. Let no one call me a television snob. But let me also draw a line in the sandbox: Free humans should never have television forcd on them. this is happening more and more, and it gives me the creeps. I know others who feel likewise.

 
There’s no escaping TV. It’s in the doctor’s office, the gym and the jury-pool waiting room. It’s in the bar, whether there’s a game on or not. It’s at the airport, where CNN holds everyone hostage. Note how the monitors are carefully placed around the boarding areas so that no seat is beyond their grasp.  

Hospital waiting rooms are perpetually under television domination. The detainees may want to read, pray or listen to their own thoughts. They are not allowed to. Television must be watched.

 In a way, the TVs that blare at us wherever we go are worse than the telescreen in “1984,” George Orwell’s novel about totalitarian communism. In “1984,” Big Brother may have been watching you, but you didn’t have to watch him all day long.  

In this world of TiVo, Netflix and video iPods, we can supposedly watch exactly what we want, when we want it. That’s civilization. But the society that lets television hijack public spaces — that’s tyranny. Television should always be our servant, never our master. I fear it may be too late to save ourselves.

I couldn’t agree more!