Okay now, this is going to sound really weird, until one remembers that I don't pay a whole lot of attention to television, being deaf and all that. The last time I really paid attention to television was about 15 years ago, shortly after the Impeached One was inaugurated, and I headed off for the socialist paradises of the workers and peasants to see what was there.
Anyway.
While waiting in an office earlier this afternoon, I noticed that CNN was on the television screen--the regular CNN, not that every-half-hour thing. I thought, well, good, while I'm waiting, I'll see some news.
Alas for me, whatever news there was, was "celebrity" garbage; some jail escapee from New Jersey had been captured in Mexico, and sent back.
I was astounded. This was regular CNN.....and in one half-hour, it was nearly half commercials; in fact, it seemed as if commercials had traded places with regular shows.
This is probably not something someone who watches television every day over a long period of time would notice, but I suspect there's been a creeping commercialism in television, like maybe half a minute more commercials per half-hour each year.
I recall reading that during the 1970s, there was much hue-and-outcry because the half-hour evening news-shows were "only" 22 minutes, with 8 minutes of commercials.
Oh happy days.
Now, of course someone has to pay for the television programming, the advertisers, and one isn't begrudging them for running commercials.
But man, there is such a thing as "overkill."
