As if having a Bush daughter as a correspondent on some of the Today Show segments wasn’t reason enough for me to change the channel in disgust from my favorite morning show, the geniuses behind the scenes have decided to end this decade during the Christmas month with a series of where are they now segments about some of the most horrific stories they’ve brought us in the past ten years.
Let’s see. So far this season, The Today Show has offered tidings of a mountain climber who had to saw his own arm off with a knife, a surfer who had her arm chomped off by a shark, and a grandmother who was kidnapped, beaten, tortured and stuffed in her car trunk to die. I guess the ‘angle’ is supposed to be that these people have all persevered and survived, giving us all hope for a bright future, but that sentiment gets lost in graphic images like granny looking like she just got run over by a reindeer—actually, all eight of them, plus Rudolph—her face completely bruised, battered and bloody. Yes, this is The Today Show’s way of ringing in the New Year and decade.
The only positive spin I’ve seen so far was in the story of a woman who had talked an abductor into letting her go without harming her. In her update interview, this almost-victim reminded us of what Christmas time is really all about, because she dropped the Lord bomb as much as Samuel Jackson dropping the ‘N’ bomb in a Quentin Tarantino movie. Not only did she find the Lord as a result of her ordeal, she lost herself in the process. God didn’t talk the abductor out of harming her, she did. But she doesn’t remember that little point. In her interview, it was like the person wasn’t even there anymore—it was just the shell of a person who had lost all her faith in herself and put it all on God’s shoulders, forgetting that God gives us the will, but it’s we who find the way. People who do that start off meaning well, then end up saying “God told me to” when they go all Jigsaw on the ‘immorals’ (aka: anyone who isn’t them). Not to mention, she didn’t once give a shout out to Jesus Christ…you know, our Savior???
My gift to The Today Show this year is to spend my mornings watching 80s videos on VH-1 Classics when I get ready for work. At least they take me to a happy place and time—when I was young, carefree, innocent, and didn’t have things on my mind like whether or not rich, privileged politicians were going to demolish any chance at REAL healthcare reform for the less fortunate.
