What breaks the long drawn out silence of this long dead blog?

An outrage with today's newscast. *

A north Texas town has had a recent outbreak of "fight parties" and a local news channel has uncovered video footage of these parties. What are they? A small to medium group of teenage children gathering for a fun time, video tapes rolling, and the fighting ensues. The supposed seed of these "parties"? The movie Fight Club, which has recently regained popularity.

I, for one, have nothing against these "parties". Let the idiots battle it out, let Nature take her course, let them kill each other off! No, my problem would be with the news station itself. The videos are repulsive, give these teens the publicity they were seeking, and the station is fishing for ratings. It's simple math, violence sells. These teens knew it; they were selling DVD copies for $5 a piece at their highschool!

It is not only the disgust for this subject that this station aired that prompted me to post. No, it was also the story they aired about a mother who was pleading with fellow parents to watch their children more carefully -- her son died in the alley while riding a skateboard, without a helmet, and without parent supervision, and was hit by a car. Yes, you read correctly.

Common sense is not so common. No matter how many times I hear this, I cannot fathom how it is possible. Children, no matter what the age, need to be watched. More so the older they become, if my opinion were asked. The older they become, the more daring and rebellious. I am not far out of childhood, I should know. Ten years old is old enough to know not to do certain things, but is this case enough to allow him or her to play in the driveway with a skateboard, no pads, no helmet, and no supervision?

I am not questioning this mother's child rearing capabilities, nor am I telling anyone how to rear children. I am simply in shock that something so simple as watching a child need be pleaded on a news station by a grieving mother. Death sells ratings as well, apparently.**





* Note, there are no external links on this post for the simple fact that I refuse to give these children the satisfaction they seek, nor do I condone such acts. Neither do I wish to reveal the station with which I have much disgust for at the moment.

** In keeping up with this blog, if it takes off once more, one will  find my distaste for "conventional 'news' presentations" to be great.