Musing #1

I’m A News Junkie

It was November 7th, 2000, on a cold, snowy day in Groton Connecticut. I sat at the end of a hotel room bed watching the election results scroll across the bottom of the television screen. Much to the dismay of my fiancée, the election was not decided that night. There were still recounts and “hanging chads” to discover. This was a news junkie’s Shangri-La. I watched all night and the next day, only pausing to grab a smoke or a fast bathroom break. Although I was up for 27 hours, I never noticed being tired nor that I was ignoring my loved ones. I was obsessed. This was not the first time I had been on a “news binge” nor would it be my last.

Every night when I lived with my grandmother, from birth to age 6, she watched the CBS evening news. I was constantly kept abreast of current events from around the world. It was from her I learned current events were important to me. When looking back through the news worthy events in my life. I can remember where I was and through what media I first heard the news. Every time I would hear the breaking news jingle the world would stop and I would sit transfixed in front of the television. Over the next few hours, I would sit patiently waiting through the newscaster’s reports repeating the same sketchy facts over and over. Hoping and praying that in this go around they would have some new fact or expert to explain the little data they had. So that I could ponder in the puzzle with the rest of the audience about what was happening in the world around us.

The year was 1979 I was 10 years old in Aiken, South Carolina. One hot and sticky summer day in July my father mentioned that I should go to The Wilcox Hotel. There was going to be a press conference with a presidential candidate. I thought about it and said I would go. I turned and asked my dad what I should ask? My dad said to ask who his advisors and cabinet members would be. He went on to explain that the advisors were just as important if not more important, than the President. Off I went and that day I became the news and I didn’t even realize it. The next day The Aiken Standard, and The Associated Press picked up the story about a 10 year old that stumped a presidential candidate when he asked about who he would pick for his cabinet. It took George Bush eight years from then to become the President. He won in the first election I was able to vote in. I was proud of the fact that I had actually met him and had become the news with him if only for a moment.

When I was in middle school every Saturday, yes we had school on Saturday, we all had to read and discuss an article in Time Magazine. The only story that I really remember was when Mohammed Anwar Al Sadat was assassinated. I could never get out of my mind how a man that was trying so hard to help bring peace to the Middle East was the victim of such a violent act.

When I was 12 our family vacation was a trip to Washington D.C. I was seeing the nation’s capitol for the first time and loving it. As I went by the Supreme Court building I saw a news crew setting up. I walked up to them seeing the CNN logo on the camera and van; I told them I loved watching CNN. The entire news crew was in shock, first this was a 12 year old and second I had actually heard of CNN. To me CNN was always on TV but what I didn’t realize at the time was that the southeastern United States was the only area that CNN was available. Now of course CNN is worldwide 24/7 in a multitude of languages.

Driving to school one morning in October 1987 I heard about the stock market crash on the radio. After getting all the details I could, I of course called my father to let him know. Something else a news junkie loves to do is to spread the news. I live for those moments where I get to be the one to tell someone and watch the reactions.

I was sitting in my trailer in 1989 watching the World Series when all of a sudden it seemed that the stadium moved. The sportscasters made some comment like what was that? Then the screen went blank then to the test signal and the accompanying annoying tone. I sat perplexed waiting for some indication of what happened. The last image on the screen was that of Jose Canseco walking out of the stadium with his wife who was crying. It only took a few min before a hastily gathered news anchor came on screen to tell all the viewers that apparently there was an earthquake near the Bay Area of California but there were no details at this time. Once again I was hooked and glued to the screen all that night and into the next day I watched images of the Fisherman’s Wharf area buildings collapsing and on fire. I remember vividly seeing the collapsed highway and shouting out in horror that it was a double decker highway and that there were probably cars trapped in there.

In the 1990’s came the advent of the internet (in my home) at first it was simply a novelty for sending electronic mail. Then wonder of all wonders, oh yes! The true holy grail of the news junkie, The World Wide Web! It was an entire world of news at my fingertips. I knew more than the TV did, or at least I knew it faster! I could surf through every different news web site that I could find, in the same time it took Tom Brokaw to read the teleprompter. I had ten times the information and from six different viewpoints at my finger tips.

Then I discovered CSPAN, I could see the inter workings of congress live. What I really loved about CSPAN was the other events they would cover, one being The National Press Club Luncheons. It was during one of the lunches that I first learned of Matt Drudge and The Drudge Report (www.drudgereport.com). Matt was my new found hero he linked all the hot news on one convenient easy to read page. Using courier font, black on white reminiscent of the newspaper of yester year he turned the news world on its ear. Around the water cooler instead of “Did you read the article in the paper? It became “Did you see Drudge this morning?”

A plethora of cable news exploded on to the scene in the mid 1990’s. MSNBC was my preferred choice for news as it seemed geared more towards a younger generation. I enjoyed the “web savvy” outlook that they seemed to have. It was on MSNBC that I watched with never ending interest the O.J. Simpson Trial and finally the acquittal. It was in berthing on the ship that I watched the slow white bronco chase. I’ll never forget the line from the criminal trial “If the glove doesn’t fit you must acquit!” It was soon after the real spectacle began, the civil trial. Once the verdict was read there were hordes of reporters running down the court house steps waving banners with codes to tell the news casters what the was verdict. Then the second wave of even more reporters letting the world know in an instant how much the jury was going to award the families.

The day we buried my wife’s grandmother in Lincolnton, North Carolina, I was watching The Today Show before we left for the funeral home. No one will ever forget where they were around 9:00 AM on September 11th, 2001. I once again hung on the edge of my seat as the first details started coming out about what was going on. Then the unimaginable happened we actually saw the news taking place and the reporters became just like us spectators and observers. At the moment the second plane hit I knew that this was no accident. In my heart I knew the world would never be the same again. The age of innocence was gone forever. Except for the funeral, I was once again glued to the television or when I was in the car on the radio. It seemed every channel was covering some aspect of the events in the days following the horrific attack. I never got enough. I wanted to know every detail, every perspective, every account. Some of America wanted away from the shock. I found once again by indulging in every bit of news I could get I was able to cope and move on through one of the biggest tragedies of our generation.

I love the news. I relish the dirt, I cry with the horror, I cheer the hero’s. I use every medium I can find to learn everything about the news. Now with simply the click of the mouse or the remote button you can have knowledge of events all around the world. No more waiting until the paper arrives or the news at six. No matter how I get it I will keep up with the news every day because I’m a news junkie.