"Good news. More bad news."

I don't know anything about the stock market. Which is why whatever monies I have are in safe investments: CDs, low-interest savings accounts and a house which was bought at the right time. So, I don't make a big profit, but I do sleep better at night. And despite what I don't know about the fluctuations of the stock market, I do know this; Any problem in the market will be made to seem ten times worse by the American broadcast media. Today is August 5, and apparently the stock market has taken a serious tumble. But the morning news with its screaming headlines, and wild-eyed commentators have made it seem like this is pretty much the end of the world. They have quick cuts of financial advisers shouting their dire predictions, remotes from Wall Street of brokers sweating it out, interviews with average Americans whose 401Ks have been damaged (or, as the news would rather put it, decimated). Of course, all these reports are punctuated with loud background noises of ringing bells and outdated ticker tape machines to create an even greater sense of chaos and disaster. As you know, I have total contempt for today's news media. The media used to report the news. Now they create it. And, not being very intelligent or productive, they do a lousy job. Since panic is more profitable news wise than serenity, that is their general goal. Today is no exception. In addition to our lousy and lazy politicians, who happen to be on a not-needed break right now, I wonder how many of our country's problems can be traced back to panic-, anger-, angst-, pessimism-, and fear-causing broadcast "journalism". And what do the morning news shows do after they have strewn their fatalistic warnings across a nervous nation? Why they go outside to greet the hyped-up crowds who are lined up with their posters and signs, eager to greet the people that make them so unhappy in the first place