HOLY COW! THINGS LOOK GREAT!
I grew up listening to New York Yankee broadcasts. My favorite announcer had to be Phil Rizzuto. He had this knack of making routine fly balls sound like they were going out of the park and mixing it up with Italian cooking in every broadcast.
“Deep to right…Holy Cow that ball could be…nope caught by second baseman Willie Randolph in short right field. Hey Bill let me tell you about the manicotti I had last night…”
Hall of Fame member Phil Rizzuto wasn’t always the most accurate announcer but he was most certainly the most fun. Having a little flair when it comes to broadcasting a sport like baseball is almost a necessity. Even though the “Scooter” exaggerated some of his play by play calling you didn’t mind because you knew he was calling them like he was seeing them. He was a Yankee and he wore it on his sleeve. The Yankees could be down by ten runs in the ninth inning and he had you believing they were going to come back and win. Contrast that with the “news” we have been being fed by the mainstream media (MSM) over this past year. We have been inundated with inaccurate reporting that has had nothing to do with calling it like it is; instead we are subject to media that follows a gloom and doom template and bending reality and the truth to fit it. They act like frustrated children trying to force pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together that don’t fit. Phil Rizzuto’s template was that the Yankees were going to win and no matter how bad the Yankees were doing there was always hope. Not to mention a good Italian recipe or two. The MSM’s template is one of blame America, the country is falling apart, poverty, disaster, gloom and doom.
We have been told that: 50,000 people were killed by hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. There is a housing bubble that will tear our economy apart. The levees in New Orleans were blown up by the government. Poverty is out of control. We are a racist country. Bush’s tax cuts were for the rich and are starving the poor. Unemployment is going to rise to record levels. Gasoline prices will rise above $5 a gallon. We are a hated nation and have no allies. We are losing the war in Iraq and we are all going to die of the bird flu, just to name a few.
We interrupt your daily doom and gloom programming with a word from the real world…despite what you are being told our country is strong. We have much to be thankful as a country. First and foremost is the fact that the garbage that the MSM has been pushing on is nothing more than hot air. It is heartbreaking when there is such a large and influential group of Americans who are so committed to our demise. If it bleeds it leads. Not only are they committed to our demise but they are invested in it.
For example, October’s estimate of 3.8% third quarter GDP growth was just revised upward to 4.3%. Like clockwork the headline in the New York Times was this Upbeat Signs Hold Cautions for the Future. The article starts off… “By most measures, the economy appears to be booming, but as always with the United States economy, it is not quite that simple.” When the facts don’t fit their template, they need to be misrepresented (I used to get angry at this nonsense, now I just laugh.). The truth is that our economy is blowing harder than Katrina. Did you know that it was the 10th consecutive quarter of growth averaging close to 4%? The Wall Street Journal asks the question, “Has there ever been a U.S. expansion this robust that has been accompanied by so much disbelief and predictions of imminent collapse?” Answer: Since Reagan was President. Coincidence?
Newspapers around the country are losing readers. Network newscast ratings are falling. There was an interesting story in the New York Post by Don Kaplan where he reports in an effort to improve ratings. CBS News is considering hiring MTV’s entertainment chief to head up the division. How does “Pimp My News” sound. My solution for the MSM is rid yourselves of all the
wimpy meterosexual male anchors with their excessive makeup and moisturizer and bring Phil Rizzuto out of retirement. He would make everyone smile; he would focus on the positive, and be invested in our countries success, not defeat. He may accidentally exaggerate a bit, but you will at least know what side he was on plus as a bonus you would learn about all the great Italian restaurants in the New York Metropolitan Area.
