Thanks to the columnist Cal Thomas, I'm reminded that Alexander Solzhenitsyn didn't spend all his time campaigning against the ruthlessness of the Soviet Union.
The dissident, who died recently at the age of 89, also had a great deal to say about the western media:
"People have the right not to know" he wrote in 1978. "The right not to have their divine souls stuffed with gossip, nonsense, vain talk. A person who leads a meaningful life does not need this excessive burdening flow of information."
I read this guilt-inducing assertion after retiring for the day from a hot beach in South Carolina this past summer. Guilty, because in our air-conditioned vacation apartment I felt the need for my daily fix, and weakened to watch the drama-laden instantaneous babble of evening cable news.
The endless speculative punditry about the Obama campaign's next response to the McCain campaign's response to the last Obama campaign attack ad, reminded me of one of my rare dissenting acts during my tenure as a BBC News producer in New York, an organization which is usually very good at deciding what we don't need to know.
I had refused London's instruction to charter an executive jet to fly to the Carribean Island of Mustique where the late Princess Margaret, a storied and colorful but self-indulgent and isolated member of the British royal family was about to undergo a minor operation on her nose. This was a low point of one of the BBC's more paranoid periods, when they convinced themselves they had to compete with the tabloid press by masking celebrity-driven stories with some perceived social significance. Unfortunately, the jet was chartered by our Washington office, filled with reporters and producers who could have been more productively employed, and this insignificant nonsense, paid for at the BBC listeners' expense, hit the air; soon (of course) to be forgotten.For the record, amidst the worldwide human misery that BBC correspondents cover on an hourly basis, this was very much an aberration in judgment. Which brings me back to Solzhenitzyn.
He knew thirty years ago that much of the drivel masquerading as "news" can be safely ignored. Which is why the choices serious journalists and broadcasters make in what, and what not, to cover, are critical.
Not only are we spending listeners' money wisely (reminder to colleagues, they pay our wages) but they trust us to make informed choices about what is significant, educational, or simply helpful, and what is not, so their valuable time isn't wasted.
Memo to vacationing self: less "Hardball", more beach volleyball next summer.
