It is snowing in New York. We have the local TV broadcasters wetting their pants over the storm and their team coverage; they have set up interviews with each snowflake as it lands in the tri-state area. There will be the required shots of newspeople with cameras showing roads in NJ, LI and CT with snow falling on and around them. They will partake in banal prattle with the news anchors about how cold it is and a warning that people should not go out, how slippery it is with a warning that people should not go out, how snowy it is with at warning that people should not go out. There will also be the closing admonition to the outside person from the inside person to stay warm and an shivery answer from the outside person that he or she will try.
They will have ominous warnings of potential disasters ready to befall the wary traveler or unlucky person who ventures from hearth and home and the front of their TVs with continuous coverage of the storm. If they are lucky enough, someone in the tri-state area will have slipped and twisted an ankle and there will be the interview with that person saying that he was sorry that he hand not heeded the warnings.
This is for a storm that should be considered a normal event in NY as it is February and winter, but becomes a full news event in local tv programming.
President Bush would be well advised to start his war outside of the snow season because a snowstorm in NY will push his war of revenge off the first five minutes of the news.
Speaking of war and the news media; where are they in being an independent voice of reason and investigation. The only thing I read in the NY papers are rehashes of the party lines; exact feeds from the government without any thought, analysis or god forbid alternative thinking on the part of the "fourth estate". They are more like the NGO Press office of the US Government; with the New York Times being called in some circles as the United States edition of Pravda.
8:24:25 AM 
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