On SNL last night, Seth Meyers nailed it when he said the "balloon boy" incident was NOT news.

By definition, he is correct, as I was taught in my broadcasting classes in college that real news is something that affects the majority of people.

Of course, if the 24-hour news network cycle believed this to be true, there wouldn't be a 24-hour news network cycle.

Did the ballon boy incident change your life at all? I didn't think so. I doubt it will have any long-lasting effect on the lives of the kid's own family by tomorrow afternoon.

TV newscasts used to be 15 minutes per evening at the network level. You would hear reports about the top events of the day, maybe a little sports and weather, and a possible human interest story on a slow day. I have to wonder that if CNN, MSNBC, FOX and all the rest actually boiled down the events of the day by the old criteria if it would still comprise 15 minutes.

Imagine a news broadcast without one mention of Jon and Kate, Lindsay, Brittany, Kanye, Amy Winehouse, and your choice of the latest stalemate/inaction of the government group of your choice, and see how much time the 'newscast' would need.

Blue Angels go Dark

Anyone try to catch the Blue Angels last weekend in San Francisco? Having lived in the Bay Area most of my life I thought it was about time to see them, so I drove up to the City and decided that Baker's Beach might offer a good vantage point. Ever optimistic, I could tell that the fog had pretty much come to stay for the afternoon but I soldiered on and made my way to Baker's Beach. There were only a few small groups of people there, including two separate wedding parties attempting to pose in their wedding duds with the Golden Gate Bridge as their backdrop. The theme of these photo sessions must have been Murphy's Law, as not only had the fog blocked out any trace of afternoon sun, but the winds were in the 35mph range. The icing on the wedding cake had to be the one brief pass that the Blue Angels made, only to disappear for good, leaving thousands of spectators wondering where they'd gone (back to SFO, actually). However, this exercise in futility was shaded a bit by my own discovery that Baker's Beach is actually a designated nudist beach, regardless of the weather. So on the rocks nearest the GG Bridge were a severely windblown bride-to-be and her aides, being photographed in an effort to achieve a G-rated version of a bodice-ripper novel. While on my right were two older men leaning against the lee side of the rocks, and a third man taking a nap on the sand, just over on the other side of these rocks, with everything on display that, personally, I never want to see again. The oddest part was that a few dozen hikers made their way past the three men as if these guys were not completely naked, sprawled on the sand, and exposing themselves to the winds and 50 degree chill. It wasn't until I was thawing out on my drive back down the Peninsula that I realized that no women nudists were on the beach, just the men. So, just where does freedom of expression end and common sense begin?

H20 - No!!!

With all of the recent outrage in the battle over health care for the uninsured, I was truly amazed that, aside from a few late-night talk show jokes, nobody said a word about NASA's attempt to explore the moon for water. Just how much did money did we waste to send a missile, followed by a probe to smack into the moon? And was there more than scant evidence that anything other than a mere trace of H2O could be not just found but exploited there? So, I got to thinking about water issues for our planet. Then my thinking changed from global to a bit more local. Then it hit me: Hey, dear government, what about all that unwanted water that destroyed most of New Orleans? How much of the money that NASA spent on a pipe dream of finding a cache of water on the moon could have been spent rebuilding and repairing the lives and businesses and homes that were destroyed here at home? I have never been a big fan of the space program as I am one of those pragmatic people who thinks that perhaps we should get this planet back in to move-in condition before we go spreading more garbage in the rest of the universe. Of course, some people may feel that what I consider to be practical, they feel is backward thinking. But seriously, can anyone really look at planet Earth and say that "Yep, we got it right down here. Now, on to outer space!" Should we take a much longer look at our priorities here?