I am looking for network news I can watch -- without screaming. I've given up on my old employer NBC. Way too 'local' and foolish. There's the Lehrer Report, I know, but I don't get a good PBS signal in Mariposa... and I don't need the depth. I already do a lot of reading and don't need the nice folks at PBS to rehears what I've already heard. I want to participate in mass culture. See what my fellows are seeing. Does anyone have a favorite they can defend?

Party w/o a Soul

I got a live call from the DNCC, fund hustling arm of Dems in Congress. Told the nice lady that I didn't trust them and was giving money only to Act Blue. She said, 'oh, then you're in the Progressive Wing of the Party.' Well, I guess I am, I said. She wanted to explain why sometimes they had to run a Blue Dog to win, and I said I understood, but that they weren't going to do with my ten bucks. No hard feelings.

We need a new plane crash

US Air 1549 ditched in the Hudson on Jan 15. That is, as we speak, ten days ago and has become the Story That Won't Go Away. On Crash Day NBC gave the story the entire first segment, eleven minutes. Seemed excessive then, and it was just the beginning. Today they had voice over of the bird-struck engine being lifted out of the water, and full package treatment for Hero Captain Sully being welcomed home in Danville. I've marked the day, Jan 15, 2010 in my calendar so to watch for the one-year-later, where-are-they-now stories, and I now believe the networks will cover the birth of children to survivors.

The Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, on the other hand, haven't been covered for days.

On the problem of determining sanity

Charlie Smith was the over-night assistant city editor at the Sun-Times in Chicago when I worked there.... you know, a while back. Charlie came in just after midnight and baby sat Chicago until the next morning, mostly with darn little to do. It was a just-in-case kind of slot. There was a single desk assistant too, sometimes me, to go to the library and make beat calls and that. Not much happened.

So Charlie read books. He bought them used and went through several every week.

One night he called my attention to the book he was reading and pointed out that a previous reader had underlined every line -- every single line on every page -- with a ruler and pencil. I admired. And Charlie told me that he had concluded that the person was insane. I agreed. Charlie was a wise man, and my boss.

A little later I noticed across the desk that Charlie was erasing the underlines, all of them.