WESTERN SKIES - March 19, 2005

*** COMMENTARY: MEDIA FREAK SHOW ***

ERIC WHITNEY: Everybody loves to hate the media, or, does everybody hate that they love the media? Commentator Mark Pizzimenti examines his own feelings about what keeps him tuning in.

MARK PIZZIMENTI: Everyone remembers where they were on nine-eleven. It was as though time stopped and the events etched themselves on our psyche. I woke early that morning alone in a San Diego hotel room. I never sleep well on business travel, and I turned on the television. The initial reports of a plane having crashed into the World Trade Center were just coming in. When the second plane exploded, I somehow wondered if it weren't an instant replay of the first crash.

Anger, pain and outrage didn't come to me until later. It wasn't even a sense of confusion that possessed me during those moments. Instead, a surreal lens covered my perceptions, and I saw images of Picasso's Guernica at the same time that I half-expected to see Godzilla emerge from the clouds of cinders and ashes.

The world went topsy-turvy. I left San Diego and drove home to my family across deserts and over mountains back to Colorado Springs.

Soon after came the anthrax letters. Then the DC snipers. I watched the wars, too, in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Wrapped in a shroud of morbid curiosity, I tuned in for these broadcasts with a relish that reminded me of a circus freak show. Hiding my face, a voyeur to calamity, but peeking, always peeking between parted fingers.

There were explosions in Palestine and Israel. Explosions in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Explosions in Russia, Chechnya, Spain, Turkey, Egypt.

A hundred Guernica's, but no Picasso.

I peeked at hostage beheadings and at the torture of prisoners; at the phantasmagoric images of smiling guards and masked executioners. Step right up ladies and gentlemen: CNN, BBC, Fox, NWI, MSNBC, PBS, ABC, CBS under the Big Top, all with their own sideshows.

I sometimes feel a sort of disappointment when the world's all peace and quiet. I chide myself and remember my humanity.

Watching the recent State of the Union address, the President's rhetoric droned me a lullaby. The Congress, though, captivated me. Republicans standing and cheering, Democrats sitting and resisting, Joint Chiefs looking indifferent and stoic.

I would like to take sides, but liberals and conservatives both blow their own brand of hot air. I want something noble to believe in, but can't help remembering that we once regarded Osama bin Laden and the mujahideen as freedom fighters when we enlisted them to fight the Soviets. Saddam, the butcher of Baghdad, was our ally when we wanted him to fight Iran. Today, the dictators of Pakistan, Egypt and Uzbekistan are our allies as are the monarchies of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan. We actively support Israeli apartheid.

I want to turn off the television once and for all, and tune out, but I can't bring myself to that either. War and death and destruction are not spectator sports, but there's still something surreal about this world gone mad, and I can't help peeking. I remain a voyeur. I hide my face as I step back into the freak show.

WHITNEY: Mark Pizzimenti is a writer who lives in Colorado Springs

That's it for this edition. Thanks for tuning in, and to all the folks out there who make this program possible. That includes you the listener, so don't forget to make your pledge your support for KRCC. Stephen Raher is the Associate Producer of Western Skies, Jonathan Wilson is our intern, Delaney Utterback keeps our computers happy. I'm Eric Whitney.