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Doom

© James C. Hess

Pogroms. Recently a sure sign of the approaching winter required my attention: A cutting frost that lasted but one night killed the battery in my vehicle. Of course, when you take the cables off the battery everything--the clock, the locks, and the radio--resets to the factory settings.

And, of course, I didn't have the owner's manual, that almost sacred tome that goes to explain how to reset these wonderful devices we have all but become dependent upon in our daily lives.

So I was reclining in the driver's side seat, trying to remember how it was I achieved the presets--all eighteen of them--on the inboard stereo/radio/tape player/CD player/ice machine and dog walker, when I recalled that the desired intent involved pressing one button on the lower right hand side of the unit while holding down another on the upper left hand side of the unit while engaging another part of my anatomy in a search of the radio stations available to find the one I wanted to preset.

I shrugged at the recollection. It was getting late, I was hungry, and success in this matter didn't seem likely, so I poked at the inboard unit, suddenly finding myself overwhelmed by an AM dial station featuring a man and a woman, who were attempting to passionately discuss the demise of the news media in the immediate region. I say they were attempting to passionately discuss the demise of the news media in the immediate region because they were doing a rather poor job of it, and the rare telephone call they received from their few-and-far-between listeners wasn't helping the cause.

Finally, just as I was about to change stations, a quiet male voice entered the conversation. When asked to provide his name he declined. An awkward moment passed. The man hosting the show quickly broke the silence resulting by suggesting the caller go by the name 'ghost'.

'Ghost' it was. The caller made no effort or attempt to discourage this. Instead, in quiet, even tones almost devoid of emotion, he began to explain why it was the news media was dying a slow death.

The audience, he basically explained. Is fickle. Make them mad and you might as well pack it in.

The male host of the show was almost stunned into silence by the profoundness of the remark, but quickly recovered. So, he said. You're saying the news media is dying because it has lost its audience, and it has lost its audience because the audience is fickle?

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