The Old Coot says, “Please shut up!”
By Merlin Lessler
Good Morning America, The Today Show, Morning Joe and the
like, with a clump of people sitting around the table, having a so-called
discussion, are all the same; everyone at the table talks at the same time.
There is no listening. It comes through my TV speaker as a jumbled mess,
something like this, “ He didn’t who said that where does it say the
Democrats he went to why can’t they say nobody will vote for she was not on the
campaign trail Iran didn’t Obama said, who can tell forever.” Nobody gets
to make a point when it’s all mixed up like this.
It’s too bad. Because sometimes, something intelligent comes
out of one of their perpetual motion mouths. And, if they listened to each
other, and thought about what was said, they might increase their own wisdom
(and ours). And, heaven forbid, even reconsider their position. But they don’t,
so everyday they come to the table no wiser than the day before.
It’s a horrible slap in the face to the higher institutions
of learning and a clear example of just how lacking a college education is
these days. Most of these “non-listening” panelists attended the best colleges
and universities in the nation. And, came through with stellar grades, but
skipped the Rhetoric class. Rhetoric was once a mandated subject in many of
these institutions, and still is, in European Universities. The art of discourse should still be mandated, so
students can learn how to speak and write in a way that informs and
persuades others to their point of view. The talking TV heads might have
learned that it’s not effective to jump down another debater’s throat
and to listen, learn and then talk. It’s obvious they prefer to “out-shout” an
opponent. They claim they graduated magna cum laude, but they really graduated
magna cum LOUD!
Like a lot of my old coots buddies, I’m on the other side of
the TV screen from the “all – talk – at – once” panelists” doing what they’re
doing, yelling at the same time, except I’m saying, “Shut up. Take turns.
Didn’t you learn anything in kindergarten?”
Another annoying thing they do on these shows, mostly the
morning ones, is to eat. Some pushy guest chef comes on the set to concoct a
politically correct snack or entrée. The “talkers” help: one dices, another
sautés and one mixes. All, showing their ineptness with standard kitchen
utensils. Then, out of the oven pops the gourmet delicacy: pond raised fish
guts with free range chicken beaks rolled in a whole wheat batter and cooked in
an eco-friendly solar oven. The show closes with the entire panel talking with
their mouths full (something else they never learned in kindergarten). Of
course, they are all talking at once. The poor camera crew gets peppered with
food particles. I wonder if they get combat pay?
Comments?
Complaints? Send to mlessler7@gmail.com
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