Shameless Self Promotion, Needless Nostalgia

It must have been a slow news night at ABC.

Anyone who knows me for more than five minutes can tell that I am both compassionate and sincere. I respect the sanctity of all forms of life. I feel I must state this before I say that what ABC news did tonight was a shameless example of self promotion.

One of the hosts of Good Morning America, Robin Roberts, was diagnosed with a rare disease that affects the bone marrow. Just the other day they were congratulating her for being elected to the Woman’s College Basketball Hall of Fame. On the news tonight they showed a clip of a little meeting they must have had of the mutual admiration society on GMA this morning. After that the medical reporter Dr. Richard Besser talked about what this disease is and its rarity. All told they spent 6 or 7 minutes covering a total non-story. Along the way, they also chose to mention that Good Morning America is now the highest rated morning show in the country.

Certainly I hope that Ms. Roberts recovers from her unfortunate illness. At the same, there has to be more important issues to talk about. It looked a lot like they were going for the sympathy angle to promote their top rated morning show. If they want to do a feel good story then talk about someone who is working to alleviate the suffering of hungry American children. I'll bet if they looked, they could find someone who is doing that kind of work and battling an illness. Now that would get some ratings and draw my personal admiration.

Two out of the next three stories were nostalgia pieces. First, they spent a minute or so talking about the 30^th anniversary of the release of ET. As if anyone cares.

Two stories later they were talking about the 50^th anniversary of the men who escaped from Alcatraz and how they never found any bodies. They talked with some cop who says he is still following up leads in the case. Talk about a thankless and pointless job.

I wonder what would happen if they actually found the three men. Would they throw them back in jail, now that they would all be in their eighties? What would be the point of that? Do they still owe some retribution to the State of California? I think we could find plenty of elected officials who have done more harm to the welfare of the people of California and they're all walking free.But that's really a whole other issue.

Let's hope the ABC Nightly News team can find something a little more substantial to report on tomorrow night or I might be changing the channel. I'm sure they don't care because deep down they know they are no better or worse than their major network rivals. The bar is set pretty low, so they never worry if they violate the standards of objective journalism. No one in the audience, except I guess for me, is complaining.