News Fatigue

So, how are we all holding up under the "all war, all the time" coverage by cable television? I cracked some time last Thursday, I think. I'm not ignoring the war - I just get my news in other ways - NPR, news websites. I just can't stand the constant speculation and the sea of talking heads, maps and that silly pointer thingy that Charlie Gibson is always carrying around. Monty Ashy, from teevee.org, sums up my feelings on this much better than I can in this station break. Excerpt:

You know how on the Home Shopping Network, they have to talk about each object for a certain amount of time? So the anchors bring out, say, a tennis bracelet and then have to wax enthusiastic about its many fine properties for twenty minutes. Except they quickly run out of properties and are reduced to just vamping on how shiny it is. The desperate improvising is pretty painful to watch sometimes, because there's only so many times you can repeat the same things.

Constant news coverage is a lot like that. When something happens, they have something to talk about. And then it might be twelve hours before something new happens, so they're stuck talking about the same thing for twelve hours. Frankly, I'd rather wait until the whole thing is over and then read about it in some kind of overall context.

Now, on a related note...at the risk of sounding like an insensitive ass, I wanted to ask you guys a question. (and this is not meant to be funny) Now that the unfortunate but inevitable casualties are beginning to add up, does anyone else notice a pattern here? Are we our own worse enemy?