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under this electric cloud


This racketing, tinned-wind noise: why am I being bombarded with *gleeful* news stories about how quickly the denizens of Winnipeg coughed up the cash for 13 000 season tickets for the new (or merely new again) professional hockey franchise in Winnipeg? Why is this a leading news story? And why is it GLEEFUL? Why is this something TO BE CHEERED? Did I miss something? Because the last time I looked, this was a private business concern, owned by private businessmen, and the thing about business guys is that they conduct business, and this business is almost always concerned solely with the idea of MAKING MONEY. So why is this idea of a group of private businessmen operating a professional hockey franchise all mixed up with ideas about Canadian self-esteem?

This is all very flimsy and, again, quite sad. The CBC, in particular, should be ashamed of itself. Since when is honey-mouthing over millionaires part of its mandate?

When I turn on the news I want to hear stories about the economy or the environment or the war (pick one) or the senator who self-destructed or the page who disrupted parliament with her arresting protest sign or any manner of important or compelling or just interesting news items. Save the sports stories for the sports section (or, better yet, the business stories for the business section, where you can do a fawning profile and everything).

How quickly we forget the last hockey strike/lockout, which was entirely about millionaires fighting over money.

But yes, I know, it's the Canadian game (funny, but I don't hear anyone crying out for more Lacrosse, which is our other official sport) and we love it (or, at least, we're constantly *told* we love it, even though fewer and fewer people actually play it) and the Stanley Cup belongs in Canada (even if the driving force behind the winning team is Swedish twins). I mean, if we're just going to be mindless whores about these things, maybe we could get Tim Horton's to sponsor the next session of parliament. And we could all get our tax refunds in Canadian Tire money!

Postscript: And then there it was, the lead story on the Sunday morning news ... Canucks win Game 2! Yeah yeah, some Europeans died from E. Coli, blah blah, a bunch of other people got shot at the Golan border, blah blah, but ... Canucks win!

Comments

  1. This morning at breakfast I was just thinking, "Why dont we protest news buildings instead of government ones?" If I hear one news channel mention a lunatic's Armageddon countdown ever again I'm going to stand outside CNN with a sign that says, "YOU are the PROBLEM."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unfortunately, if they'll follow Sarah Palin around, they really can't be trusted to exercise much judgement (especially about Judgement Day).

    Can you hear the weariness in my voice? I think I might just turn it all off for the summer.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Self esteem is a marketable commodity.
    I swapped mine for entre to bars and after several hung over decades I fashioned a new model; DIY esteem custom made only for me.
    it's a work in progress or maybe regress. It's work amyway

    ReplyDelete
  4. Self esteem is a marketable commodity.
    I swapped mine for entre to bars.
    A brief few decades later and my new custom made esteem is an exciting work in progress or regress I forget which.

    ReplyDelete

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