My Lenten news fast has been only a partial success, but it has reinforced an observation I made some months ago. Cable and many of the Internet news sources spend more time speculating on what the news could, should, might be than on what has actually happened – unless it involves a shooting or high-speed chase.
I sat down for a quick bite a few minutes ago and watched the President’s plane landing in London. There it sat with nothing much happening, but the on air commentators went on and on about what the next few days might bring including their instant foresight analysis of what all that will mean if it does or doesn’t happen. For Pete’s sake, even the Hebrew Prophets, who were prodded along by God himself, got their prognostications only partly right, and then missed a good many of those by a couple of centuries. This isn’t journalism. It’s barely one level up from middle school gossip.
And that’s my humble opinion about that. It’s time to get back to theology.