Trusting Televsion

Whom can you trust? When most people say something, they truly believe what they are saying. I am skeptical. People often base their opinions on prejudice and misinformation. I don’t trust anything I get forwarded to me over the internet. I want reliable sources, like TIME magazine, television news programs, and the newspaper. I worked for newspapers; they are supposed to check facts before publishing.

Now I don’t know whether to trust the Dallas Morning News or our local PBS station. It is a trivial thing, but small matters may indicate larger problems.

The television program printed in the Sunday Dallas Morning News showed KERA, our local PBS station, scheduling a pledge drive “special” from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m., with a regular program (a mystery with Inspector Lewis) 8:00 to 9:30, a TBA from 9:30 to 10:00, with British comedies starting at l0:00. I never watch during pledge drives. I can’t stand the long, boring non-commercials.

I waited until 8:00 to turn on PBS. The 50's music thing was still going on. I thought, “KERA is extending this program from 8:00 to 8:30, switching to fill in the 9:30 to 10:00 time slot. Then they can run the mystery I want to see from 8:30 to 10:00.” That seemed logical. I was wrong.

At 8:30 I watched old gals decked out with black eyes and sequins. Then at 8:30 KERA started a 30 minute commercial. “Surely this thing will be over at 9:00,” I thought. And it did! But instead of Inspector Lewis, a guy started promoting his tax videos. This was “non-commercial” television?
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At 9:02 I switched to AMC and watched “Mad Men”.

At 10:00 I switched back to KERA. The tax man was still promoting himself. I turned off the tv in the living room and turned on the one in the bedroom. I let the man rave while I got ready for bed. He did advise people to “Get a good CPA.” I have a good CPA. My daughter is the tax accountant for an international corporation. At 10:30 I snuggled comfortably under the covers and finally got to see one of the PBS programs I had been looking forward to all evening: the British comedy “As Time Goes By”.

At last, after an evening of frustration, I had something entertaining to enjoy. I fell asleep during “Keeping Up Appearances”.