My Aching Thumbs or Give My Remote Control A Break!

This week, I finally got into Ljubljana to make the acquaintance of the faboulous Mr. Paterson_si, and it turns out he -- surprise, surprise -- also works in journalism. In fact, it turns out he is quite the pro, but he was kind enough to break away from his very busy schedule to have a brief coffee and chat with me.

As we talked, he quickly confirmed my newfound (two-day old) realization that while there might be a problem with censorship in Slovenian news there is still the overriding fact that there are FAR TOO MANY NEWS OUTLETS in this country. While I know I come from America where everything on television has been reduced to sensationalism and entertainment, I've travelled enough to know that Slovenian has FAR TOO LITTLE (sensationalism and entertainment). In addition to the four or five national tv stations, it seems every small area has its own television station and every small television station has ITS own news. While this makes perfect sense in America, it DOES NOT make sense in a country this small. There is simply not that much that needs to get hashed and re-hashed. For the few minutes that the airwaves are news-free there seem to be political debate shows that fill the time going on an on until the wee hours of the night. I continuously find myself asking...when do these politicians and pundits sleep? And, honestly, is there really so much going on that they have to hang around parliament until the 11PM telecast? I really don't think so.

Now, I don't wanna insult anyone. I love this place, I really do, and I never thought I'd ask this, but is it too much to ask for a little more mindless entertainment and a little less play-by-play?