My Thoughts

My Thoughts
insider1

For the last 50 years, Insider has routinely tuned into the national news telecasts every night. CBS News was always his choice, primarily because for years he never had cable and only got a couple channels and channel 16 was it. It was always fuzzy and hard to see but the volume came in just fine. The old guy was used to hearing the news only as a kid anyway because the radio was all he had. Before the world of cable, channel 16 just happened to be CBS News’ channel. Therefore, his love affair with Walter Cronkite began. He was there with him through much of the news-breaking events of Insider’s lifetime, such as Pearl Harbor, the moon landing, the Vietnam War and the Kennedy assassination. A bond developed. For convenience, he stuck with CBS through the Dan Rather years, even after he went a little crazy after being beaten up an alley and through the ridiculous piece of fiction that eventually led to his resignation. The old guy drew the line with CBS though when a cute, young tart was hired to replace Rather’s temporary replacement, Bob Schieffer, who should have gotten the full-time job. Insider just does not trust the news when it comes from a woman. It’s tarnished with gossip and is not credible.

The only problem with switching networks is the other two broadcast networks feature young-timers who spend more money on their hair in a week than Insider receives in Social Security benefits for the month. He can’t trust them either. They are pretentious phonies who make it obvious they are reading the news from a screen and could care less about what they are reading. They just want to make sure they pause for breaths at commas and periods. Insider is sure the old-timers, like Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley, read the news as well, but they were not as obvious when they did it. Perhaps it was because each had their own charming way of mis-speaking and mispronouncing every once in a while that made them feel like normal folks. These folks today are too polished and primped for the old guy’s taste. They’re just too pretty.

That’s why Insider is a PBS guy now. Jim Lehrer is more up the old guy’s alley and actually makes it seem like he cares about what he’s talking about. Not only that, he’s not pretty and Insider can identify with that.