THE MEMO

It's true the world has become much more complicated for guys like me who are still plodding along with old school ethics. Honesty and accuracy were a big thing back in the day; but perhaps a little less so now.

(and no, thank you, I don't care to address the cigarette industry's explanation about "the T zone")

Political ads like the ones running between the two camps for Florida governor Rick Scott and his opponent, former governor and new wannaby Charlie Crist
have me in a constant state of confusion - which is only slightly smaller than the State of Rhode Island.

The problem is each campaign team is attacking the records of the other and incredulously  are using the same alleged examples to try to make their point.

Therefore, if you're listening with only one ear it's difficult to determine which candidate the political ad is attempting to support - as well as what they did or did not do while in office.

But, that's politics and apparently we don't pay much attention to political ads anyway.

I reach that conclusion because pre-election we continue to be polled and tell those doing the polling we overwhelmingly don't like the incumbent and then go out and vote most of them back into office.

But, confusing views are not restricted to politics.

There's a lot of "Eaching" going on due to the constant repetition of TV ads beating us over the head with their alleged "truisms".

 "Each' day we are deluged with advertisements from a drug company's representatives. "Each" ad - which appears to be a little more aggressive with "each" showing "each" day -is dunning the quality of their competitors product. "Each" one also is claiming their medication is the one proven to give us the best results.

In the Sullivan household we (okay, ME)  sometimes swear to ourself that  one grizzled old guy out there in an TV ad  - shooting hoops with an obviously coordination challenged youth - is the same one we saw a few months ago in a advertisement for a competing product.

Repetition  - when combined with old age - will do that to your memory sometimes.

Fortunately, by the time each commercial finishes telling you all of the bad things that may happen to you from ingesting or injecting their product - you tend to reach for the old reliable Bayer aspirin bottle, instead - and forget about their claims.

The end result of these advertising deluges - costing the drug companies millions (probably billions) of dollars is that many of us walk away not knowing who to believe - if anyone - and, because of advertising expense, we will never see the price of their products come down to a point it will fit our family pocketbook.

And, fortunately for you, I won't even attempt to tackle the attorney ads in an attempt to support my point.

I mean, if we want the straight scoop on something - we go to the sports pages anyway. Right?

That's what I thought too, until this morning when reading about the election of the new MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. Two of USA Today's columnists or contributors covered this occurrence as well as the current state of professional baseball.

One guy, Bob Nightingale - a regular contributor wrote: "The biggest obstacles facing Manfred will be to help modernize the game, with attendance stagnant for the past decade and with declining national TV ratings."

The other guy, Paul White, reported: "Baseball revenue has steadily increased to record levels - projected to be in the $9 billion range this year. Teams are lining up record TV contracts."

My question is: Which guy didn't get the "memo"?