In their hurry to be the first to report the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Healthcare Act, CNN got the result wrong, announcing that Obamacare was overturned. A mere eight seconds later, the Fox News Network reported the same thing and went into fast and furious reporting about what this would mean to the nation and to the political future of the President.
They were, of course, wrong. In their rush to get their scoop, the reporters had not taken time to read the full opinion.
It reminded me of the AT&T commercial of a couple staring at their cell phones so they would be the first to know everything. When a neighbor said a young couple had their baby, she was told "That was so 29 seconds ago." Throw the baby out, people, it's old news.
Somewhere along the way, time became our masters, shallow knowledge our necessity.
Instead of watching a glorious sunset, people stay inside to say they watched the latest episode of some TV series as if it won't become a re-run within a month or two. Instead of spending time playing with their children, they have to know the second it happened who won on Dancing with the Stars or American Idol so they can report it on Facebook, though the result will be on You Tube within 24 hours. How does it alter anyone's life to miss out on the exact moment things happen?
When I go out camping, I know nothing of current events. Two weeks later, when I return, they are history and more accurate for being so.
Why should anyone wait in line to see a movie when the same movie will be in the $2 movie theaters a month later, on DVD a month after that, and on Netflix within six months?
Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden: "Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry."
And "Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails."
And "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains."
Which is a better use of time than either CNN or Fox News managed.
They were, of course, wrong. In their rush to get their scoop, the reporters had not taken time to read the full opinion.
It reminded me of the AT&T commercial of a couple staring at their cell phones so they would be the first to know everything. When a neighbor said a young couple had their baby, she was told "That was so 29 seconds ago." Throw the baby out, people, it's old news.
Somewhere along the way, time became our masters, shallow knowledge our necessity.
Instead of watching a glorious sunset, people stay inside to say they watched the latest episode of some TV series as if it won't become a re-run within a month or two. Instead of spending time playing with their children, they have to know the second it happened who won on Dancing with the Stars or American Idol so they can report it on Facebook, though the result will be on You Tube within 24 hours. How does it alter anyone's life to miss out on the exact moment things happen?
When I go out camping, I know nothing of current events. Two weeks later, when I return, they are history and more accurate for being so.
Why should anyone wait in line to see a movie when the same movie will be in the $2 movie theaters a month later, on DVD a month after that, and on Netflix within six months?
Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden: "Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry."
And "Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails."
And "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains."
Which is a better use of time than either CNN or Fox News managed.
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