Information Overload

September 11th, 2001. A day that will live in infamy. And, if this last week is any indication, a day that will be relived from every conceivable angle and detail every freakin' year until our children's children are collecting whatever, if anything, survives of Social Security.

The last seven days has been a veritable orgy of media coverage of September 11th. In my completely un-scientific count, I saw at any given time of the day on my Comcast cable guide at least 3 channels running some kind of program having to do with the attacks that day. As we got closer to Monday, that number ramped up to 6 or 7. Today, that's all there is on any channel that isn't Disney or the Food Network. No, I take that back... I think I just caught Donald Duck mentioning something about it.

I don't mean to sound callous about the whole situation. It was a great tragedy and a sobering reminder that burying your head in the sand leaves your ass sticking straight up in the air. That being said, I really, REALLY don't want to relive the whole thing every single year. In fact, as I sit here, I'm watching the local news. Now, I don't live in New York. In fact, I don't live even remotely close to New York. The news has been on for almost 30 minutes and, aside from the weather, we are JUST NOW getting to our first local story of the day. We've talked about the attacks, the President's comments on the attacks, the children who were born around the time of the attacks, the whole "what were you doing during the attacks..." thing. Please make it stop.

What really zips me though is the undercurrent of this whole thing. I mean, we've got the documentaries, mini-series, undercover and investigative reports, moves and God knows what else. The accuracy of these reports range from suspect to downright incorrect, depending largely on the agenda behind the production of the program. For an example, we can look towards the ABC mini-series "The Path to 9/11". During the hype up to the program, they claimed that the show was "based on the 9/11 commission report". About the same time, the Democrats, specifically the players of the Clinton administration, who were heavily portrayed in the program, were crying foul, stating they were grossly misquoted throughout the film. Now, one would expect any political figure to immediately send out the "I was misquoted" form letter in response to, well, any quite, regardless of the existence of an actual misquote. However, shortly before airing the first episode, the phrase "based on the commission report" blurb was conspicuously absent. Coincidence? You make the call.

But, believe it or not, that's not my biggest peeve on this subject. In true American form, it didn't take long for the movie industry to begin their profiteering. United 93 has got to be the most disgusting form of profiteering my generation has ever witnessed, and I'm afraid we've only scraped the surface of this. We're not even close to the end of it. Think the movie isn't an attempt to profit from the tragedy of the actual event? Explain to me why tickets to see the thing are $8? Cost coverage is a weak argument. Hell, if they truly wanted to make it a tribute and a memorial to those who fought for all the lives that weren't lost as a result of the hijacking of that plane, they sure could have done it with money on hand and grants from those interesting in getting the truth out about it. Instead, the chose to make a few bucks on the graves of those brave souls.

There is the thought out there also, primarily propagated by the Liberal left, that all of this attention paid to 9/11 is a convenient way for the Republicans to manipulate the mid-terms by "scaring the public" into believing that voting Democrat would put Americans in danger. Whether this is true or not is a subject of another Peeve, but it is interesting to point out that the mainstream media (the same media that are pushing out the 9/11 programming like a crack dealer) is by and large Liberal. Never mind that the Democrats have no actual plan themselves on how to deal with the clear and present danger to Americans. No, Hillary, simply undoing everything the Bush administration has done to this point with a "we're sorry, Osama. Please stop hurting us" love letter on top doesn't qualify as a viable plan.

Which actually points to another flaw in the Democratic "poo poo Bushie" love-in. They're so busy jumping up and down asking for Bush to be impeached they forgot that they should, you know, FIND A CANDIDATE THEMSELVES!