Venerable Institutions Now Faking It

You know society is dumbing it down to extinction when intelligent sources get lazy.

60 Minutes: These people are really pissing me off. They used to be our "end of the weekend brain stimulation before The Monday Meltdown" source.

Interesting shows, professionally presented that opened up new worlds or exposed corruption in a fun and eye opening way as scum squirmed on national TV.

Shows that taught us stuff or sparked an interest in something new. Shows that broke our hearts and brought tears to our eyes. Shows that made us laugh and introduced us to people who have earned our respect.

Now, you flick up the guide on your all powerful TV screen, check out 60 minutes to see who is on or what the topics are and the guide says "New."

New meaning new show. Not a repeat.

Used to be when the show was a repeat it would goddamn well say "repeat."

Now it says new BUT when you dial up the show they cover three topics - again - saying "When we first aired this episode" blah blah blah. They then go back and repeat the original episode almost in its entirety, and add some postscript at the end. Some sort of update.

This passes for "New."

Shouldn't these people be jailed? Executed maybe?

Sunday night is sacred. It is the end of the weekend for most people and brings on "Monday morning my life sucks" anxiety.

It is almost impossible to enjoy Sunday night because you are thinking so hard about the job you hate and the people you work with who suck.

You turn to 60 Minutes for some diversion and they water down your brain with recycled crap punched up with 30 seconds of new stuff.

And they get paid 16 times what you make to do this?

Time Magazine: Another revered news source. Heavy duty, hard hitting topics covered professionally and in depth.

At least that's the way it used to be.

A very recent issue was called "The Question Everything" issue. Boldly across the top it asked: "Is Monogamy Over?... and 21 Other Questions About the Way We Live Now."

This immediately captured my attention because if they could convince me that monogamy was over I vowed to drop Carol like a hot potato, no questions asked.

Instead they went on to ask: "Do Robots Need Rights? Would You Trade Brains for Beauty...or Beauty for Brains? Should We All Wear Body Cams? Is Etiquette Dead? Are Computers Too Smart? Topless in Public? How Do You Know When You've Made It?"

Are you fucking kidding me?

With all the brain power one would presume to be behind Time magazine, you would expect weighty topics and knee buckling analysis and predictions.

Instead I felt like I was reading a kindergarten primer suggesting dazzling topics for Little Joey to discuss with Smiling Suzy to facilitate his ultimate goal of getting into Suzy's crayon box.

60 Minutes and Time Magazine should be upholding a standard of intelligence and professionalism committed to informing and improving the brain power of the American public.

Instead it seems like they have decided that we Americans are so stupid that they will stoop to our level in order to hold on to those almighty ratings.

A self fulfilling prophesy, my friends.

The more stupid we become as a society, the less intellectual stimulation will be available to us.

And the rest of the world sits and waits and laughs.