It sells radio space, news papers and leaves the general populace feeling miserable, as there is absolutely nothing they can do about it.
Let's go on to things we may be able to do something about, like the 43,000 people who die in the U.S. each year from automobile accidents, or the 14,175 (2001) persons who died from aids/hiv.
Just over an hour ago there was a call to a local radio talk show program (Seattle, AM 570 KVI, The John Carlson Show) from a man whose 8-year-old son spent six weeks in what the doctors called a "primitive vegetative" state. (Cause, if I remember right, was a horse kick to the head that severed the son's brain's hemispheres.)
The father said that his son Joseph, when he recovered, was able to relate how they turned the TV on to his favourite programs (inclusing the Smurfs) so he could watch, and Joseph recalled all his visitors from his church during that time he was supposedly brain-dead.
The kicker came when Joseph, now approximately 24, came on the air. You could hear the slowness and hesitation of his speech -- but as his father had pointed out, the doctors had essentially written him off, said he wouldn't talk again (the speech centers were cut off), walk again.. or do much of anything again.
Early on in the interview Joseph said it was his church's prayers that brought him back out.
Joseph is now apparently in college (in Texas?), living on his own, with (as his father says) a real girlfriend, types 30 WPM (compensation for the speech?), lifting weights...
And Joseph says that Terri should be kept alive.
John Carlson remarked that this was one of the most.. important.. calls in his 10 years on the air. I'm fishing for the right word too, but I quite agree. This interview needs to be heard around the country!
I've sent an e-mail asking if KVI would post it.
I really miss listening to him. I even went to see him when he came to Louisville - and of course, got an autographed, photograph. :)