by Frank Hyland

I Can’t Take it!

At first, some might scratch their heads; a few might even disagree that the pressure’s on in our society. Whether it’s Follywood, Major League sports, Politics or a host of other lines of work, there are signs of pressure everywhere. The phrase “Going Postal” is used so often that it has become a somewhat trite expression. Drugs, speeding, drinking, three-thousand-dollar Call Girls, and on and on. The Mainstream Tedium love it, of course, because it’s so “easy” and cheap for them. They feast on the releases put out by Publicists, stick a headline on them, and BAM! – There’s your Evening News program. And they get a steady supply of such announcements. Hardly a week goes by without yet another story of yet another “personality” entering Rehab. British singer Amy Winehouse took that to a new level recently by incorporating “goin’ to rehab” into a song…..how cute.

Depending on where you get your “news,” it can easily appear that we all live in a pressure cooker 24/7. Well, actually that’s true. What doesn’t come through in what SCARE-ME TV feeds us, though, is how many folks don’t succumb to the pressure. You’re familiar, I’m sure, with the Unemployment Statistics. Almost nightly, we’re told that the Un-employment rate is estimated to rise, is rising, has risen, rose last month, etc. Now, we’re said to be “up” to a 5% Unemployment Rate. Depending on whether you’re a “Half Full” or “Half Empty” type of person when it comes to the half glass of water, you either cringe or you shout back at the deliverer of the drivel – “That’s 95% Employed, you jerk!”

Why – I hope you’ll ask yourself, your family, your friends and neighbors – does the media express things that way? You already know the answer: It sells commercials. At some point, though, you should feel so insulted at being treated like some brain-dead creature who is there only to watch commercials and buy the stuff they advertise. You’re not reading this from your room in a rehab facility, so why be treated as if you are? Also, when the so-called personalities no longer see similar stories on the news, the odds are that they’ll stop drinking and driving just ahead of the Paparazzi.

The actions of a few are reprehensible, it’s true. It is also true that they are, in fact, “The Few.” The next time that you see a story on an alleged news program that mentions rehab, drinking, drugs, or any other such behavior, hit the remote and don’t watch the commercials that follow it either. Better yet, tell your TV station what you’ve done. You actually have the power to put pressure on the media, believe it or not. If you don’t buy the “stuff” they advertise, they don’t advertise. If they don’t advertise, they’re off the air. Good riddance.