SlowpokeBlog

I've been meaning to do a strip about those damned airport TVs for some time now, and this week seemed especially appropriate since I've been logging some serious time in airports lately. I know I said I was going to blog about the tour, complete with pictures, but I've just been too busy and tired. It occurred to me today how many different modes of transportation I've taken in the past week -- planes, trains, automobiles, buses, light rail, subway. The only things I haven't ridden are a horse and a segway. Oh, okay, I guess I haven't been on a bike or motorcycle. I'll work on that.

So yeah, I hate those TVs. Reader Greg in PA wrote in summarizing the situation nicely:

Those horrible gigantic flat panel TV's tuned to CNN or Fox are a menace. I dread going to the doctor or dentist not due to the medical procedure, but because I know I will be forced to listen to a talking head idiot yelling at me for hours in the waiting room. You feel like Winston Smith in Orwell's 1984 with the propaganda forced on you from a flat panel display in every room. At least they can't see you through the display, yet.

Just a couple weeks ago I had to get an x-ray at one of the University of Virginia health system outposts, and lo and behold there was a TV blaring FOX News in the waiting room. I couldn't believe it. Isn't that antithetical to the calming environment that's supposed to be the norm in doctors' offices? The story was something gratuitous about a Muslim cab driver in New York (I didn't catch the details because I was filling out a form and trying not to listen). But it was clearly bashing the cabbie for something he did, and it was getting some people in the waiting room riled up against "those people." Probably not the best atmosphere for lowering the blood pressure of any patient who happens to look like "those people." Later that evening I spent an hour trying to track down the e-mail address of an appropriate honcho to complain to, but no luck. It's still on my very long to-do list.