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No TV is good TV

one_eyed_man.jpg February 9, 1993
 
Robert Bianco's triumphal return gets a resounding second from this viewer/ reader who also laments the eight-month news void that the boob tube couldn't fill.
 
The mindless Mickey Mouse channel that calls itself a “24-hour news source” gave us five-second weather reports alternating with 10-second repeats of day-old headlines. If they were publishing a newspaper, they'd print it on a match-book cover. Out by the parkway, they filled their “expanded newscasts” with tendentious TV schedules, reports on male impotency and a medical analysis of liver spots.
 
Down in the city's high-rent district, they backed up their parade of talking heads with minimum-wage leg men.
 
All the while, of course, each station trumpeted its claim to having received awards for the best newscast ever aired here. Which reminds me of the truth of the old saying: “In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”
 
JACK O'NEIL
Sewickley

January 06, 2004 in Arts |

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Jack O'Neil

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Contents

  • What's this all about?
    Why this site exists
  • Epigraphs
    Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
  • Helping Young Addicts
    Alcoholism is a disease.
  • O’Neill wrong on Welk
    Lawrence Welk is a genuine American hero.
  • Protesters ignore history
    “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
  • Helping alcoholics
    A.A. is being imitated, adapted, plagiarized and counterfeited.
  • "Columbus bashers" wrong
    Hooray for Columbus! Hooray for America! Hooray for progress and civilization!
  • BYOB no solution
    Sorry, Socrates, but BYOB is not a change of behavior, only a change in acquiring and drinking alcohol illegally.
  • No TV is good TV
    In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
  • Road deaths have dropped
    I don't care if Kilbuck collects a million dollars a day from speeders and drunk drivers.
  • Censorship or anarchy?
    I have never seen a film of a little girl being sodomized, or a man being disemboweled or burned alive, or a woman being gang-raped...
  • Don’t mislead the unwary about the AA’s 12-step program
    If alcoholics can do it, anyone can.
  • Unleashing anger over abortion coverage
    Ambiguity aside, are you people in the newspaper business or are you the official spokesmen for the abortion mentality?
  • Musically speaking Pavarotti is a sell-out
    Caruso must be turning over in his grave.
  • Rid campuses of alcohol
    Recovering alcoholics in AA know more about the subject than all the college professors in the world.
  • A nice long ride
    The retirement of Pittsburgh broadcasting's patriarch, Paul Long, prompts several observations about this man's remarkable achievements over a long -- and I DO mean Long -- and productive career.
  • Brighton Heights NIMBY
    Still another letter saying “It's 'No' for Rehab Center” (Dec. 28) and again, from a resident of Brighton Heights, where someone is trying to reactivate the long-gone St. John's Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Center.
  • The truth about AA
    The 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous often comes under public scrutiny by competing private services that know the price of everything and the value of nothing. This time they even fooled your staff writer (“Faith Fading as the Basis of AA, Some Leaders Say,” May 20).
  • Bring back news values
    The news media's criteria for what is “newsworthy” continues to fascinate this 1951 journalism graduate of Duquesne University.
  • Clinton vs. Saddam is a very scary match-up
    In the words of the great philosopher Yogi Berra, it looks like deja vu all over again.
  • The lesson of Rege Cordic
    This is an open letter to all of your readers who are also fans of the Lynn Cullen show, recently cancelled by WTAE in its questionable opinion that everybody in Pittsburgh wants to talk about Sports. (God Help Us !!!)
  • Making headlines
    I laughed, I cried, I marveled at the creativity behind your wordsmiths who seldom fail to give me a lot more than I pay for with my daily issue of the Post-Gazette.
  • Called 'em as he saw 'em
    Helen Weals' July 14 letter "St. Paul Is No Marriage Expert'' reminds me of my college days at Duquesne University many years ago.
  • Turkey Disasters Part II, or, Fowl Deeds and Misdemeanors
    When my wife learned a neighborhood girlfriend didn't relish spending all day in a hot kitchen, they “pooled their resources” and invited the neighbors, too.
  • Bush's social services proposal will be money well spent
    I can still hear the cries of horror and anguish from the ACLUnatics
  • The Senate turncoat
    The three-ring circus masquerading as the U.S. Senate now has everything.
  • Alcohol's bondage
    At last! The March 8 letter from Dr. Lawson Bernstein (“No Laughing Matter”) finally brings a serious note to the ongoing saga of Judge H. Patrick McFalls Jr. Dr. Bernstein realistically and credibly states that alcoholism is a disease (not a crime) and has symptoms, a treatment of choice and an outcome.
  • PSO and Pope: When 2+2=5
    After reading the garbage-laden letter from Grove City's Walter Carson about the PSO and the Pope (“PSO, say no to the Pope,” Feedback, Sept. 5), I pondered just what would constitute an appropriate reply.
  • Dylan way overrated
    As a writer most of my life, I love words as much as musicians love notes. But when you let readers (and I love them, too)

Categories

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