SECOND POT OF COFFEE THOUGHTS

It is interesting how each morning the life cycle plays out on the NBC network affiliates.   The NBC Today Show for the beautiful people to snare in the twenty somethings; the political show, Morning Joe, on MSNBC for the middle age crowd; and the hard core financial news show, Squawk Box, on CNBC, featuring guests with one foot in the grave.

The increasing age of the guests and audience for these three NBC morning shows is directly responsible for the decreased ratings for each program and for the increased complexity of the topics discussed.

If I were to make one prediction, on which I would wager all the marbles, it would be that gas/oil fracking, no matter what regulations, taxes or other barriers are put in place, will continue to accelerate and transform South Western Pennsylvania.  It is unfortunate that the economic potential is simply too great to have environmental concerns slow this juggernaut down.

Our Marcellus Shale is the fracking sweet spot of the world because of prior geological mapping, road and bridge infrastructure that simplifies setting up and moving rigs, landowners who have a financial interest in cooperating with the drillers and workers from the western oil belt who know the business.  No other country has this combination of factors to grow the fracking industry.

The most gratifying news story of the summer has been the large anonymous gifts and hundreds of small donations to save our local libraries.  What other institution gives so much pleasure, to so many, across all age groups and income boundaries.

While I continue to read Rolling Stone magazine and to sample new indie groups on Spotify, I sometimes get the impression from the comments and lyrics that these millennial kids see my generation as a large part of the problem.  I always feel better when one of the young band members is photographed hugging Mick Jagger or Willie Nelson. 

If these young musicians want to show some rage by singing about a failing democracy, unaffordable higher education, lack of empathy for the poor or drones killing civilians in other countries, why not crank up Teenage Wasteland, For What It’s Worth, or, Smells like Teen Spirit.  Oh, I forgot, those old guys are either dead or millionaires.

Have you noticed how quickly certain words and phrases make their way into common usage with journalism operating at the speed of the internet?  “Seachange”, “over the moon” and “it is not my circus and those are not my monkeys” come to mind, among many others.

There has been a seachange in the manner in which we receive our news over the past ten years.  Some of the new media websites are over the moon in their complexity and format.  Thank goodness that the Observer Reporter is not my circus and its staff not my monkeys in this cutthroat and challenging environment.