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Grubble Grubble
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Tuesday, August 13, 2002 :::
rant
There is an old joke: "Scientists have just discovered that researchers are the #1 cause of cancer in laboratory rats."
I think the same can be applied to journalists when it comes to the population in general. Hear me out for a moment.
The masthead of the New York Times is "All the News That's Fit to Print." It dates back to 1896, and a quick search through Google to find out that little factoid resulted in 347,000 variations and bastardizations of that phrase, including "All the News That's Fit to Blog." Whoda thunk? LOL
Anymore, journalism is based on sensationalism. There was a time when writing a news story that was more melodrama than story was a bad thing. Oh, it was done, because it has been more than proven that it sell papers. William Randolf Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer did this during the Spanish-American War. In fact, it was from a character in Pulitzer's New York World that we get the term "Yellow Journalism."
I know what you are saying. "Ok, Caveguy, thanks for the history lesson, but what the hell are you ranting about?" Good point. Any editor worth his salt would be cutting the hell out of this editorial.
There was an article on MSNBC.com this morning touting the health benefits of beer. The article points out that moderate consumption of beer helps prevent such ailments as hypertension, heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, and dementia. It even goes so far as point out that binge drinking is bad for you. (Thanks. This, like smoking, was unknown to us before the fourth estate so diligently reported it. Note the sarcasm, please.)
The article quotes studies and a research scientist from the University of Texas. What it does not do is give details as to his research, nor any information about the studies cited. But, to cover itself, the title of the article is "Beer May be Good for You." I am waiting for the seemingly endless line of soundbytes to start appearing everywhere.
A couple months ago, we all were bombarded with stories about how fat is good for you. All our non-fat food is actually unhealthy. It was not until you dug into the fine print that you found out that fat is useful to the body, but that did not give us license to eat ice cream by the tub.
Any good nutritionist could have told us this all along. We need fat in our diets. We also need fiber in our diets, along with protein and carbohydrates. We also need exercise and proper rest to live healthy lives and maintain a good weight level.
The bottom line is, we are a nation of extremes. Moderation does not seem to fit well into the lexicon of American life. It just bothers me that the media seems to prey upon this.
/rant
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