I'm generally one of those hermit types who stays as far away from news television as possible, but lately I've been glancing at it every now and then--I'll be on line somewhere where there's a TV tuned to Fox, or I'll walk by a room while other people are watching some news station or another.

On many--maybe all--of these occasions, I've heard someone use the words "9/11".

Does this seem odd to anyone else? It's been six bloody years. I'm pretty sure Spain, for instance, isn't still hung up on their subway attack (awful as that might have been). Yet we seem to have adopted this "never forget" mentality. Why? What makes this shitty product of warped psychopathy any different from all the other shitty products of warped psychopathy that occur all over the world every day?

Probably trying to use it to justify that whole "war on terror" thing.

I'd say that our news networks are something of a mixture between entertainment and distraction but that would probably be too melodramatic. I still think they are, though.

Considering 90% of international news reported here today is related to Iraq which stemmed from 9/11 I don't really think it is that unreasonable.

I hate our news. When I'm on watch, we're only allowed to watch news channels. So in an 8 hour watch, I end up usually seeing the same 5 stories cycled throughout the day and it doesn't matter who they bring on the show the "weigh in" on the topic...everyone says the same damn thing.

Agreed. We have TVs on at the restaurant I work at, and if they're not on crappy daytime "Judge" shows, it's on the news. Same bullshit over and over.

And is it just a personal percieved increase, or are serious news channels focusing more and more on stupid entertainment news? I don't give a baker's FUCK about Paris Hilton's tramautic prison stay.

It's not like it just suddenly got this way, the news has fed off sensationalism and celebrity intrigue for awhile. The days of Edward Murrow are long gone.

I really can't watch the news anymore. Its extremely depressing and it seems every story is irrelevant to me, except for the 1-2 local stories that aren't all that local.

That's exactly what I was talking about. CNN, right?

And even then it's just more really depressing stuff that you easily could've gone through life without knowing.

It's a sad state of affairs when there's more journalistic integrity in blogs and more actual, relevant news on the Daily Show and the Colbert Report that there are on news stations or in the papers.

I just came in here to post about the Daily Show and Colbert Report... thanks a lot, jackass.

Basically our foreign policy and hell our domestic policy has changed considerably since 9/11. 9/11 was a turning point and will forever be a huge transition for us, watch for it in history books. Your kids will ask you about it and so will your grandchildren. It's crazy to think about it.



EDIT: Also to add, the best news is Google News, hundreds to thousands of sources. You get to pick and analyze for yourself.