Items that make me yell at my TV set

Lee Ellis

Like many other married couples, my wife has to put up with me yelling back at our TV set. No, I don’t yell at all the violence on TV, although I don’t like it all, especially the gore (We have stopped watching some of the once great dramas that now just delight in showing vivid autopsies as part of their plots) nor do I scream at the obligatory graphic sex on just about every so-called romantic movie these days, although my wife will tell you that I always ask why these young TV directors think this is better than the old ways of showing crashing surf on the beach or lightning storms out the bedroom window. Whatever happened to the beauty of imagination?

No, what makes my blood boil are the TV news shows which seldom show real news or genuine facts anymore, substituting, instead, opinions, the results of propaganda and Congressional stupidity.

Today, I found myself yelling at the TV while Fred, Mort and Mara were arguing with Brit Hume on Fox News about the WMDs finally discovered in Iraq in 2004. The question was being asked as to why President Bush and the Republicans did not officially release this information so as to stop the blithering condemnation of one of the reasons we went into Iraq. The consensus was that we had only found a few, not the entire horde that existed. Therefore, it would cause the liberals to shout back, “Ha! --- they only found a few, not enough to fight a war over.” This is when my blood pressure rose enough to worry my cardiologist, as I yelled at the TV, “It only takes one WMD to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans here in the US!” Later, on the O’Reilly show, Newt Gingrich agreed with me as he told Bill that 500 chemical warheads armed with Sarin gas were enough to prove that Saddam had been lying, not our President, as members of the Far Left keep stating.

If that was not enough to quiet me down, along came a video of Congressional stupidity. Senators were debating on an exit to the Iraq war, with Levin, Reid and other Democrats trying to pass a resolution that would give Islamic Jahadists the information they needed to allow them to hang in long enough to defeat us --- the dates we planned to cut and run from Iraq. Would it be this year or would it be in 07 or 08 as some Democrats want? As Mort said, in essence, if this were WWII, Harry Truman would have yelled, “Hell, no, we won’t tell our enemies anything!” I always loved Truman as President, so I was yelling the same thing. My wife complained that I drowned out Brit’s answer.

Later on the networks news, (I can’t remember whether it was CBS, NBC or ABC, --- they are all alike these days) came the lead story about how seven Marines and one sailor are accused of murdering a civilian in Iraq. I wonder how anyone knows the difference between a civilian and a suicide bomber over there. Now I am screaming, “What about those who kidnapped, tortured and murdered our two soldiers, leaving their desecrated bodies as booby traps on the streets of Baghdad?” The TV anchor did not answer me.

I was hoping that the TV news would now turn into one of the soft “Dateline” type features that substitutes for the last half of most network and local newscasts these days, so that I could calm down. But, no, today, there was no relief. Stupidity was to reign.

On came the story of how Clark County School District in Nevada bowed to the wishes of the ACLU and cut the microphone of the speech by a young valedictorian just before she could thank God for her ability to graduate. Brittany McComb was determined to tell her fellow students what was on her mind and in her heart. Reporting on a news story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, we heard that Brittany had told the paper that after four years of school at Foothill High and learning about the freedom of speech, she, just like all other valedictorians had in the past thanked their parents, wanted to thank her Lord and savior. The reason for cutting off her speech was that such language might be perceived as being school policy. Of course, I was yelling at the TV again, as my wife kept raising its volume with the remote, that students express their own personal views; only teachers and principals state school policy in their speeches!

My apologies go out to all the wives of America suffering with husbands like me who yell and scream at their TVs. Perhaps we are only a few who remember back to the days when we were at war with Hirohito’s and Hitler’s hordes. We still recall the radio news, newsmen like Ernie Pyle, and films with patriotic celebrities like Brigadier-General Jimmy Stewart who flew 20 combat missions, Captain Clark Gable, who flew five, and Lieutenant Audie Murphy, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor and the most decorated hero of WWII. These were the days. They cheered us and made us proud to be victorious Americans.

What happened to that winning spirit?

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Lee Ellis is a retired journalist and narrator, formerly with both CBS and Gannett (USA Weekend). He was also a combat veteran of WWII, having fought in the South Pacific invasions. He had the pleasure of interviewing Ronald Reagan as an actor and then later working to help him become Governor of California. At the age of 80, he is keeping busy writing and doing free lance narrations for radio and television. He is an active member of Rotary and the VFW.

indiolee@dc.rr.com