Bada Bing

 

Here we are in 2024 and it seems like it was only yesterday when “The Sopranos” landed on our not so big screens.  It was January 10, 1999.  And until the final episode in June 2007, it was must-see television.  For me, “Yellowstone” is the only series that has since come close.  And, as much as I like Yellowstone, it simply does not rate up there with “The Sopranos”.  

It was the acting and the dialogue that made "The Sopranos" so great.  The violence was graphic but never gratuitous and always seemed necessary.  And of course there were plenty of F-bombs dropping all over the place.  But the way those Jersey guys said F—K, F—king, F—ker and of course the “mother” of all F-bombs, it just seemed natural. 

The larger-than-life actor James Gandolfini left us way too soon.  But had he lived he would have forever been Tony Soprano no matter what other roles he played.  Even great actors find it difficult to break away from an iconic character.  Most of the Soprano regulars are forever linked to that series, but none more so than Gandolfini.

The Sopranos struck a chord with Americans.  We were stepping into a new millennium.  There was money to be made and life was not bad for most of us.  But we were haunted by the emptiness of our pursuits.  The Sopranos reflected what we had become.  Living in a wealthy suburban neighborhood, the kids doing normal kid stuff, Mom taking care of everyone and everything; and Dad heading off to work in his big, shiny SUV.  He just happened to be a Crime Boss. 

Tony Soprano was like one of us, only different.  Like us in that he was a blend of good and bad.  He hoped to be more good than bad.  But he had a job to do and people were counting on him.  If he had to do bad things to those who got in his way, they had it coming.  Like us, it was just business. The only difference being that he didn’t just kill careers, he killed the people.  And we rooted for him every week.

Headlines

 

It seems that most everything one reads, watches or listens to these days is wrapped around a narrative. Because I lean right, I get more unsolicited emails and social media stuff that matches my apparent “right-wing” bias.  But I try to balance it out by intentionally seeking out left leaning newspapers, magazines and television.  

 

So, with the admission that I have a “right-wing” bias, let’s call it “center-right”, I have noticed that in recent years even the Dallas Morning News (DMN) has started to lean to the left.  It’s not in-your-face progressivism and they still publish some “conservative” news and editorials in a positive way. But increasingly the headlines, captions and photos tend to promote progressive causes.  It’s not slightly above average summer heat. It’s approaching record heat.  The mess on the border rarely makes the front page unless it is some local on the border taking the law into their own hands.  If the police shoot a black person it’s front page, anyone else and it is somewhere in section B.  Trump supporters are right-wing or MAGA people.  Biden supporters are just Democrats.

 

When a school superintendent up here in Grayson County makes a controversial decision to insist that in school plays the kids must play characters that match their gender at birth, it makes the front page.  Not saying I agree with the superintendent’s decision, it was a bad call.  And it made national news, not just in North Texas.  So, the DMN had to run it and probably had to run it on the front page at some point or have their “honest” journalism membership revoked. 

 

A lot of the stories and headlines in the DMN are directly from the Associated Press or other wire services.  Some are articles from other newspapers.  The vast majority of those tend to support left-wing narratives, even if it’s just with the headline or the wording used to describe conservatives.  I’ll give the DMN some credit in that most of the few “pro-conservative” or at least unbiased articles originate with DMN journalists and editors.

 

The DMN probably sees itself as being fair and balanced.  Maybe they don’t notice the left-lean of the other “news” they publish.  But I tend to think it’s just another indicator that the left is winning the culture war.  Those on the left would nod and say they are winning because they are on the right side of history, or just following the science, or protecting democracy, or promoting the virtues of diversity, equity and inclusion. 

 

And so it goes. I’ll continue to read the Dallas Morning News, the e-paper version of course.  (Doing my part to reduce global warming.)  But, I will read it knowing that most of those who write the articles and report the news see the world much differently that I do…and they are intent on changing it.  

 

“With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism.  The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.” Hunter S. Thompson

Another Two Cents Worth

 

Time for more random observations and comments.

 

_Recent elections in Europe point toward a shift to the right.  Some might say this is dangerous while others say it’s about time.  Europe is facing some real challenges: declining population vs. keeping the gates open for more immigrants, energy cost and reliability vs climate change activism; and the growing threat from Russian expansionism at a time when the U.S. is struggling to remain the free world’s bodyguard. 

 

_The whole Caitlin Clark/WNBA/Olympic team snub mess has become one more battleground in the Culture War.  Wholesome white, Midwestern woman who hit the jackpot faces resentment from WNBA veterans who are mostly black.  But even some of the white WNBA veterans are critical of the attention and money going Clark’s way.  Leaving Clark off the Olympic team only adds fuel to the fire. But, make no mistake, if she had been selected for the Olympic team there would have been just as much, if not more, fuel added to the fire.  That’s how culture wars work.

 

_School choice. I am conflicted on this issue. Certainly, there are places where the public schools are so bad that parents would do well to send their kids to private schools or just home school them.  But there are still many places where the public schools do a good job.  And all things being (almost) equal, public school education is a plus in my opinion.  However, this is a tough one.  Long-term we need to upgrade our public schools.  But in the here and now, there are parents who have rightly concluded that their kids would be better off NOT attending public schools.  Should they get a break financially to offset the cost of NOT using the public school system?  We all pay taxes for things we don’t use or things that are unusable… thanks to the government.  Where’s my voucher?

 

_You know you are getting old when every few days some celebrity or sports legend you remember from “back in the day” passes away.  Jerry West, Bill Walton, Larry Allen, Toby Keith, Duane Eddy, Carl Weathers are just a few of those we’ve lost this year.  Some of them are a bit “before my time” but I certainly remember them.  Others are from my generation.   And many are younger, so much so that I don’t even know who they are or why they are famous.  And some of those you remember, you’d just as soon forget (O.J. Simpson).