From January 9, 2013
Ego te absolvo, mutton-head…
All have sinned, and all need forgiveness from sins. The Bible teaches us that the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, “hath power on earth to forgive sins” (Matthew 9:6).
But apparently that’s not good enough today. Lance Armstrong, who once had the world by the tail, but pissed it all away by cheating and getting caught, wants to have his sins forgiven so he can be a celebrity again and make money from endorsements. So he will publicly, on TV, seek absolution.
From another celebrity. From Oprah Winfrey, in fact.
It seems Oprah hath power on earth to forgive sins: at least that’s what Lance is hoping. On Jan. 17 he’s scheduled to appear on Oprah’s cable TV show to confess his sins to her and ask her to wipe them away. He’ll probably cry, too. And Oprah will cry. I know I would, if I were forced to watch this.
All right, boys and girls… Can you say BLASPHEMY?
Funny, isn’t it? The more blasphemy we have in our culture, the less the word is used.
Yes, apparently the archaic word “blasphemy” is reserved for only those who dare speak against the Big O. Incredibly pathetic.
I won’t wear those silly bicycle hats. In Arkansas I don’t even have to wear a helmet when I ride a motorcycle, but I always do. Lance was cheating all along so he is no hero period. Let’s see him win a race fair & square.
I’ve always wondered why Oprah’s opinions hold so much sway. She has the right to her opinions and has a platform for publicizing her opinions, but why does anyone think that she has some sort of high ground which make her the arbiter. The first time I saw her show, in the early ‘80s, while visiting a relative, my first reaction was; who died and left her in charge?
She’s a television personality, an actress. Remember Johnny Carson, the affable comic who hosted the Tonight show for decades. He was an actor, playing an affable, funny person. He wasn’t that guy in real life, where he was said to be somewhat aloof, and cold to even his progeny. The list goes on. Gene Simmons who looked menacing in his make when he performed in the band Kiss, is in real life soft spoken and thoughtful; the diametric opposite of his state persona.
That’s one reason I eschew broadcast and cable television. It’s a non-stop world of make believe that ropes people into believing that there is something real going on. There isn’t. What you see on TV is what the camera is pointed at, what the editors, producers and directors see fit to let you see, and all of it fits in with the image the producers want to project.
Who cares about Oprah’s approval? Certainly not I.
It is all so phony.
It is. Vaudeville has been part of humanity for a very long time. It hasn’t always been called Vaudeville, but the basics have been in place for a long time. Put on a show with a mix of comedy, drama, music, etc. and people will flock in. When television came along, it was the perfect platform to continue the tradition. Even better, shows could be produced ahead of time and edited to best advantage.
Nothing wrong so far; entertainment is fine, so long as it isn’t confused with reality. But that’s the problem; people think that what they see on TV is real. It is not, and especially so with “reality TV”, and “news” programs. I remember back in the ‘70s, seeing local news programs in Denver, and it was obvious that they were dramatizing their reactions. Instead of reporting an event, they were making a conspicuous show of their sympathy for victims, their outrage towards the unjust, and their feel-good reactions to human interest stories.
This, IMHO, was the tip of the iceberg we face today, when media seeks to tell its audience how to feel and how to react to various news events, instead of simply giving an unbiased account of events. It’s become insane, with people reacting to, what amounts to, Vaudeville.
Lee particularly, hated what had happened to journalism. He was a fine reporter and worked very hard in his news reporting to remain just that–a reporter. He wrote great opinion pieces as well, but always kept his reporting straight.
I find that very few people are able to rise above themselves and see to larger picture. This moment in time is monumental. I don’t claim to have a perfect handle on everything that happens, but I realize that we have to be fair in how we portray things to others. There’s an old, possibly apocryphal tale from the Cold War, where the US and the USSR were the only nations competing in an Olympic event, which the US won. Allegedly, the Soviet press reported that ‘the USSR came in second place, while the United States came in second to last’. Factually true, but a very inaccurate way of reporting the facts.
I have, at times, looked at press reports of the same event by numerous sources, and have been appalled by the spin some news outlets put on their stories. I have no problem with opinion pieces, but it needs to be made clear at the outset that these are editorial opinions, and not reporting of fact. Sadly, few people are aware of the difference. I’ve met people who became very worked up over something they read in an opinion piece, to the point that they refuse to discuss facts, but confine themselves to opinions. Much of what we see today has become opinions cloaked as reporting. I have essentially given up on mainstream media, at this point.
Mainstream media stinks.