Merry Media Make Believe!

Merry Media Make Believe! We’re now at that magical time between Thanksgiving and the New Year when the elves in Media’s workshop turn out stories they make believe are important, and good little girls and boys make believe that they are interested in them.

These stories are usually touching or amazing tales, especially touching and amazing to those who have to fill blank newsprint or empty air minutes. That’s because modern Journalism has copied Best Practices from egg farms--- those who don’t produce get to pursue other interests, generally broiling, baking, and frying.

Here’s a sampling of the latest:

IRAN DEFIANT ON NUCLEAR PROGRAM – And how, a little child might ask, is this different from all the other times Iran has been defiant on its nuclear program? To which an adult might answer “Shaddup, Kid! We’re trying to make merry here!”

NEW AFGHANISTAN STRATEGY TO BE ANNOUNCED,  a perennial favorite dating back decades to when the Soviet Union held the New Afghanistan Strategy franchise. Then the Bush Administration took over announcing new strategies, followed by the Obama Administration.  The Afghans themselves stick to a strategy that has worked for a couple of thousand years, which would prove them backward and not innovative if it didn’t keep winning.

SHOPPERS THRONG STORES generally surfaces just before and after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas. Sometimes the shoppers throng for a few bargains or to return another testimonial to Aunt Milly’s lousy taste, but mostly shoppers throng because that’s what they do. And reporters report the annual thronging because that’s what they do. Ain’t Nature wonderful?

CELEBRITY INDISCRETION may always be counted on to provide grist for the mill based on the formula “Celebrity (Name) is reported to (pick one):

n  Have had a disagreement with spouse, lover, publicist, the law or some combination.

n  Have patched over a disagreement with spouse, lover, publicist, the law or some combination.

n  Make a living by doing stupid things so that stupid folk may write about them for the entertainment of the stupid readers.”

HOLIDAY TRAVEL CLOGGED by airport delays, crowded highways, bad weather, and the repeated amazement expressed that those who travel in the busiest travel season of the year, which happens to be in late fall and early winter,  encounter delays and congestion.

TOUCHING HOLIDAY STORY recipe is one part surprise, one part engaging protagonist and one part joy or tragedy; mix well, garnish with photos or video and serve.

But above all, Merry Media Make Believe to you and yours!

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