Videos better than TV watching?

A month ago here at Media Issues ("http://www.suite101.com/articles.cfm/med...") appeared the article Television: Confirmed drug?, parts 1 and 2. The article, based on research done at ""http://www.disinfo.com/pages/article/id1..." claims that television watching is addicting and leads to, among other things, loss of ability to distinguish fact from opinion (which the right-wing conspiracy crowd says is by design--that way, the masses can't tell when the media is presenting bias in the news, for instance) or fiction from reality.

So what happens when, quite by accident, one is denied their usual TV fare (the DirecTV box went out) and one now must rely on video movies and recordings for their TV entertainment? Does this still make TV watching addictive?

This is our family situation--no 100-plus channels. No "http://www.scifi.com/". No FOX network, no The Simpsons, no "Sunday night lineup" (Futurama, King of the Hill, Simpsons, Malcolm in the Middle, X-Files), and, very fortunately, no "reality television" FOX style (does anyone know who won "Boot Camp", Wolf or the lady?). We have been watching movies or previously taped movies and shows (does this violate that FBI warning?) and, truth be told, this means we are watching less television by default. Does this mean we are now less addicted to television and now we can tell the difference between truth and what the media wants you to believe?

Maybe some of the folks at media organs like the "http://www.csm.com/" (Christian Science Monitor) and "http://cnn.com/" (CNN) should watch less TV and more taped videos, seeing as how they can't tell the difference between a right-wing militia and six north Idaho children trying to keep their home while their mother is falsely accused of child neglect by a Bonner County prosecuter more interested in protecting the land-grab agenda of local officials than he is in keeping a fatherless family nearing financial destitution in tact. CNN identifies the living situation of the children as a "compound" (see "http://www.wnd.com/" WorldNetDaily's article on CNN's 'Compound' Interest, making them--by design--appear to be anti-government fanatics, wealding shot guns and raging mean dogs (most of whom are puppies!) so as to generate as little sympathy for the kids as possible. Then you have that article in the Christian Science Monitor about the wane in the militia movement, what with the terror of Okie City and its militia/white-supremist/Christian Identity underpinning, and the non-event that was the y2k millennium bug. This article--poorly done as mostly what it does is substitute quotations from hate-watcher hack Mark Potok (Southern Poverty Law Center) for genuine research--lumps these six Idaho kids with the likes of Aryan Nations!

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