#!/bin/gibberish

While nearly 150 human beings dead or missing from a Congo boat accident or the 49 people killed in an Indian bombing, Sonny Bill Williams, is presented with puzzling reality as he gains yet another 10 minutes of prime time television news giving him demi-god-like status to the masses.

Part of a new class of society, footballers, are able to gain prime time television on demand amongst the assaults, rapes and abuse cases that rarely see their justice. Above the law, they are worshipped as the great saviours of society, bringing people together via the love of sport. Trivial may be just what this is since the definition for game in the dictionary (Merriam Webster) is: “1 a (1): activity engaged in for diversion or amusement”.

Everyone loves games. And perhaps now more then ever as this diversion is becoming one of self indulgence for our nation now as the major prime time news networks (7, 9 and 10) exploit their audience’s by presenting: “1 a (1): activity engaged in for diversion or amusement” as their prime feature.

On the other hand news, (defined by Meriam Webster Dictionary as: “1 a: a report of recent events b: previously unknown information <I’ve got news for you> c: something having a specified influence or effect”) is said to be something having a specified influence or effect. Sonny Bill Williams, is not a man of influence. Unlike suspected war criminal Radovan Karadzic who has had such an influence and effect his crimes have been labeled “genocide”.

A government change in Tonga is now expected as Tongan king plans to give up his monarchial powers of absolute rule. Among all the other events happening around the globe which could potentially have dire or extreme ramifications our prime time television channels provide us with what we want to see. Sadly, in our time, what we want to see may not be news, maybe people cannot except the reality of a world outside themselves.

If news shows do indeed know that Sonny Bill will attract a greater audience then the death of 49 people then they are no better then con-men exploiting an innocent victim. The audience exchanges time being bombarded by commercialism and advertisements, while the fact that a man who plays games has flown overseas, is masqueraded as news and applauded. People watch the news in the hopes that somehow they will become informed of important events, however news programs are becoming the new CSI or Big Brother presenting people with comfortable and family friendly entertainment.

-Ben

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 9:30 pm and is filed under Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.