The past couple of days, I've been exhausted. And when I'm exhausted, I usually turn on the TV to see what is on (although I almost never watch the crap that is showing -- hence the TV on the toilet).
I was amazed at all the crime on the TV.
There was a show on "Criminal Minds" about a band of serial killers (not the musical kind of band, the kind of band that "bands" together when committing their crimes). As if there are actually "bands" of serial killers roaming the streets. In fact, serial killers are extremely rare and are only responsible for a tiny fraction of all murders in any year.
There was a show about people in prison -- "Lock Up" -- titled something like "Never a Dull Moment in Prison." Strangely the show description claimed that prison life is routine and monotonous (in spite of the title of the show) and it of course focused on those random and uncommon moments of sheer terror that occur in prison. The show featured on what the producer called "the most violent act they've ever witnessed while filming, a stabbing on one inmate by another (although thankfully that was not caught on film, only the man stumbling down the yard bleeding.
There are at least three movies on that were violent and dealt with murder and punishment.
Then there was CSI and Law & Order (I think it was the "new one" -- Law & Order: Los Angeles), two shows that have been carefully studied and shown to be very inaccurate in their portrayals of criminal justice processes.
And who knows what other shows were also on. I turned it off and picked up my book (I really want to finish this one).
The point is that crime makes up a large part of TV programming, as you already know. And most of it is completely inaccurate.
To the credit of CBS and its 60 Minutes program, it focused on supposedly American corporations who have moved their headquarters overseas (oftentimes just an office space staffed by a secretary) in order to avoid paying US taxes. The CEOs complained about the 35% tax rate assessed against corporations in the US (ignoring that more than half of corporations actually pay NO taxes each year), saying they wanted to move the jobs and money back to the US but that they were "forced" to move overseas by US legislators.
If we cut the tax rate of these corporations to match that of countries with lower rates (let's say to 15%), the US government would lose trillions of dollars in taxes. And yeah, we can afford that right now, can't we?
That's the kind of story we need to see more often.
But, tonight, I will be watching the new show "Chicago Code" about police officers and corruption in the city. I don't think it is particularly accurate, but I like the characters and think it is entertaining, and besides, it's the only show I watch on TV.
