Having always preferred being a participant rather than a spectator, TV sports have not been my first choice for entertainment. However, many things have effected a change in that view. I'm not as physically energetic as I was thirty or forty years ago. It is nice to keep part of my mind occupied while I am doing an otherwise mindless task sitting down. For years I have watched news channels and political talk shows.
When I begin to not choose playing the piano to relax, it finally dawned that it is because the piano has gotten somewhat out of tune and is not pleasant to me. Similarly, the media has also gone out of tune. Instead of finding news about what is happening, we are fed opinions from biased people who pretend to have some authority to predict our economic and political future. It feels as my piano does when it is out of tune so I turn to the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, or play around with some of the PBS channels. While I don't follow all of any sport, I tend to get hung up on the Baseball Playoffs, the Superbowl, the Masters and other tournaments for golf, though I really can't say that tennis, hockey and soccer have grabbed me yet. However, I realize that watching athletes who have mastered their sport, surgeons who have mastered their operations, even cooks who have become skilled at food preparation and many blue collar pros doing their electrical work, plumbing, carpentry or whatever, is far more entertaining and educational than the 'balanced' panels that have people like and too many others who make me cringe and channel surf.
If I believed that most published polls are accurate, I would try to find out the changes others have made in their video viewing. Even the sitcoms have gone so commercial and politically correct. I long for the energy that was raised when Normal Lear tackled sensitive subjects in the most tasteful ways.with shows like Maude or Archie Bunker (was that All in the Family?)
