Breakneck News
Back in the last century I got most of my news from NBC. Sometimes, I’d tune in CBS, like my family had when I was a kid. But rarely did I choose ABC or any of the other New York stations, whether local or national. I also ignored the new cable stations, figuring they were staffed by wannabe announcers and reporters who couldn’t land jobs at the major networks. I did watch public broadcasting regularly but I don’t recall them offering national news like the commercial networks. And I rarely read the New York Times. I’d do the crossword, follow the art scene via their reporting but never was I interested in what the gray lady had to say about breaking news. But this century I’ve changed my stripes and, up until just months ago, I’ve relied on her as well as The New Yorker and Atlantic magazines to keep me informed.
Then along came Covid 19 and the Second American Civil War and the outrageous doings of a living nightmare called Donald J. Trump. Suddenly there was more news coming at me faster and more furious than at any other time in history. Then from within this whirlwind came the pundits, the experts, the insiders, the swamp dwellers and op-eders and all the other spokes-folks who have something to say about a certain something or other, some of whom I‘ve “painted” for posterity. That is, if there will be a posterity!
