The 24/7 cable news media have been finding what passes as commentary for their idle mouths. The latest is their chatter about the oil crisis in the Gulf.

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"The devil finds work for idle hands."

In my youth that was so often repeated to my tender ears that it scared me to no end. Naturally, not wanting to do even the slightest thing the devil desired motivated me to fill my hours like an intrepid lawyer determined to have no un-billable hours, minutes or seconds for that matter. From time to time I realized that I engaged in some activities not so much out of compelling interest but instead to simply fill my time and leave not a moment in which the devil could even think about to wedge himself. News mongers should do the same.

The trouble with 24 hour coverage by cable news, at least in one aspect, is that they have to find work for idle hands--I mean tongues. They have all the time in the world and nothing to say so they allow themselves to say what they will and the devil gets in the detail. CNN for example, while purporting to be experts as they dialogue about the horrendous oil spill, which incidentally is a great deal more than a "spill," runs out of things to say. In their idleness, they begin an exploration of whether the president is angry enough. It is even suggested that perhaps he should show much more emotion. That, we know, would solve the problem--or at least de-oil the feathers of the birds of the air that have been grounded. Right! Perhaps he should adopt his street persona, that we all know he has, and tell the m*****f****** BP brass what to do and where to go. They actually said perhaps he should shake his fists. Remember when premier Nikita banged his shoe? How about hip-hop artists raising their fists? Should the President get Amadinijab angry or Hugo Chavez angry or maybe Kanye West angry?

Here is a man, the leader of the free world rationally looking at this huge problem trying to learn, to listen, to direct, to decide and to calm. I have always learned that to do critical thinking or problem solving one needs best to be composed and cover the range of possibilities while not go off half-cocked blaming, scapegoating, and being pissed off. He said he was upset but I suppose that just is not good enough. The people who need things to say to kill time if not kill the flow would destroy him if he really got angry. And angry at whom? BP, or Halliburton, the Tea-baggers, or Dick Cheney?

To keep things moving on CNN an argument is mounted that BP should have informed everyone that they had stopped applying the mud solution to stem the gushing crude some 16 hours earlier. "The American people are demanding to know..." and why are the "people" just finding out they ask. "We should have been told you interrupted the application and we demand to know why." Everybody knows how to fix this morass of a problem sufficient to tell the government and BP what they ought and ought not to do. Seems to me if everyone remained calm and found ways to help rather than tear down we would all rest a little easier.

So CNN turns to experts who slither out of crevices to spill their notions and devil-maycares. This expert spent 40 years in the oil drilling business we are told, and he is now a distinguished professor at mucky-muck University. Why is he not a part of the team working on the problem? Why does he even agree to address the subject? Why would he know exactly how to forestall the destruction of the wetlands and elect to talk about it on television, fill the idle time, and yet not step up and remedy the situation?

It is not only CNN; I just happened to be watching them for a short while. Of course they dug up tape of President Bush, the father, HW, speaking after the Exxon-Valdez debacle and saying it would be investigated and changes would be made to prevent a reoccurrence. Following this, President Obama is shown saying pretty much the same thing today, many years later. The response of this same-old, same-old juxtaposition is met with derision complete with head shaking and eye rolling. Now I ask you, "What the heck else could or should be said? "We are not going to try to make any changes; we'll just maintain the status quo and hope for the best?" Even if it does not get done is it not good to at least try to set a goal?

It is not only CNN. I switched to Fox News only to find a day later that the intrepid "fair and balanced" journalists mounted the assertion that government should have done and should do more. In fact the president should have begun immediately, to stem the tide as it were. Furthermore, there was the bold statement that, "This (the tremendous effluence) is Obama's Katrina." The two occurrences, however, are quite dissimilar, so much so that an apt metaphor would be that putting them together is akin to trying to mix oil and water.

And then there is MSNBC whose experts suggested that the president's lack of emotion, again a familiar sentiment, could be mitigated by an oft heard "I feel your pain" from the mouth of President Bill Clinton. Why they would make such a statement when President Clinton was all but laughed at is hard to comprehend. But, then again, they could be correct and the general public would respond to that assertion with warm fuzzes.

I wonder whether the constant pictures and constant babble really adds to the public understanding or whether the proverbial "American people" give a hoot about how it's done; with mud or concrete or whatever. I have not polled them but I think they would say "Just get it done!"

Finally, there is a lot of verbiage about the government stepping in and moving BP to the side and fixing the problem as if the government is an oil producing entity. I wonder if this is the same government that interferes too much in peoples' lives, that should leave things to the states, and that never does anything correctly and is way too big. The devil needs to diversify and forge some other gap fillers as each media source tends to say the same things. Should the government hire a cadre of oil drilling experts and engage in a matching of wits with the BP folks? Perhaps we need to take a deep breath, and then count to ten so that with purpose of heart we let God be in the detail.

[Dr. Gene M. Gordon is faculty emeritus of Computer Information Systems at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. He considers himself a generalist and dabbles in several areas of interest and expertise. He is a public speaker, a writer, and educator who also is an ordained minister. He resides in Bloomsburg, Pa., with his wife Eleanor (Scottie), a retired lawyer.]

Authors Website: http://www.walterbrasch.com

Authors Bio:

Walter Brasch is an award-winning journalist and professor of journalism emeritus. His current books are Before the First Snow: Stories from the Revolution , America's Unpatriotic Acts: The Federal Government's Violation of Constitutional and Civil Rights, and 'Unacceptable': The Federal response to Hurricane Katrina, available at amazon.com, borders.com and most major on-line bookstores. BEFORE THE FIRST SNOW is also available at www.greeleyandstone.com (20 discount)

Walter Brasch, a deeply valued Senior Editor at OpEdNews passed from this world on February 9, 2017, age 71, his obituary follows:

Walter M. Brasch, Ph.D., age 71, of 2460 Second Street, Bloomsburg (Espy), died Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017, at Geisinger Medical Center, Danville surrounded by his family.

He was an award-winning former newspaper reporter and editor in California, Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio; professor emeritus of mass communications and journalism at Bloomsburg University; and an award-winning social issues journalist and book author.

Walter was born March 2, 1945, in San Diego, the son of Milton Brasch and Helen (Haskin) Brasch and was a 34 year resident of Espy.

In his early years he was a writer-producer for multimedia and film companies in California, and a copywriter and political analyst for advertising and public relations companies. For five years during the late 1990s, he was the media and social issues commentator for United Broadcasting Network. He was also the author of a syndicated newspaper column since 1992 and the creative vice-president of Scripts Destitute of Phoenix.

Dr. Brasch was a member of the Local Emergency Planning Committee and was active in the Columbia County Emergency Management Agency. He was vice-president of the Central Susquehanna chapter of the ACLU, vice-president and co-founder of the Northeast Pennsylvania Homeless Alliance, a member of the board of the Keystone Beacon Community for healthcare coordination, and was active in numerous social causes. He was co-founder with his wife Rosemary Brasch of The Oasis, a biweekly newsletter for families and friends of personnel stationed in the Persian Gulf. Later, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, they published The Oasis 2, for families of persons in combat zones. They were supported by the Bloomsburg Chapter, America Red Cross and Geisinger Medical Center, Danville.

He was the author of 20 books, most which fuse historical and contemporary social issues. Among his books are Black English and the Mass Media (1981); Forerunners of Revolution: Muckrakers and the American Social Conscience (1991); With Just Cause: The Unionization of the American Journalist (1991); Sex and the Single Beer Can: Probing the Media and American Culture (1997); Brer Rabbit, Uncle Remus, and the 'Cornfield Journalist': The Tale of Joel Chandler Harris (2000); The Joy of Sax: America During the Bill Clinton Era (2001); Unacceptable: The federal Response to Hurricane Katrina (2005); America's Unpatriotic Acts: The Federal Government's Violation of Constitutional and Civil Rights (2006); Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush (2007);  and Before the First Snow (2011). He was co-author of The Press and the State (1986), awarded Outstanding Academic Book distinction by Choice magazine, published by the American Library Association.

His last book is Fracking America: Sacrificing Health and the Environment for Short-Term Economic Benefit (2015), a critically-acclaimed novel that looks at what happens when government and energy companies form a symbiotic relationship, using "cheaper, cleaner" fuel and the lure of jobs in a depressed economy but at the expense of significant health and environmental impact.

During the past two decades, he won more than 150 regional and national media awards from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, Society of Professional Journalists, National Federation of Press Women, USA Book News, Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group, Pennsylvania Press Club, Pennsylvania Women's Press Association, Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Association, Penn-writers, International Association of Business Communicators, Pacific Coast Press Club, and Press Club of Southern California. He was recognized in 2012 by the Pennsylvania Press Club with the Communicator of Achievement award for lifetime achievement in journalism and public service.

He was an Eagle Scout; co-recipient of the Civil Liberties Award of the American Civil Liberties Union, 1996; and was honored by San Diego State University as a Points of Excellence winner in 1997. In 2000, he received the Herb Caen Memorial Award of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. For the Pennsylvania Humanities Council he was twice named a Commonwealth speaker. He also received the meritorious achievement medal of the U.S. Coast Guard.

At Bloomsburg University, he earned the Creative Arts Award, the Creative Teaching Award, and was named an Outstanding Student Advisor. He received the first annual Dean's Salute to Excellence in 2002, a second award in 2007, and the Maroon and Gold Quill Award for nonfiction. He was the 2004 recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Service Award. For 22 years, he was Editor-In-Chief of the awarding-winning Spectrum Magazine, part of the journalism program of the Department of Mass Communications, Bloomsburg University until his retirement in 2010.  The community magazine was published twice a year by students for residents of Columbia and Montour counties in northeastern Pennsylvania and one of the few to be inducted into the national Associated Collegiate Press hall of fame. The magazine was also a consistent award winner in competition sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists, Columbia Scholastic Press Association, and the American Scholastic Press Association. He primarily taught magazine editing and production, public affairs reporting, feature writing, newspaper editing; every Fall, he taught a 250-student section on mass communications and the popular arts.

 Dr. Brasch was co founder of the qualitative studies division of the Association for Education in Journalism, president of the Keystone State professional chapter and for three years deputy regional director of the Society of Professional Journalists, from which he received the Director's Award and the National Freedom of Information Award. He was president of the Pennsylvania Press Club, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Women's Press Association, and founding coordinator of Pennsylvania Journalism Educators. He was a featured columnist for Liberal Opinion Week, senior correspondent for the American Reporter, senior editor for OpEdNews, and an editorial board member of Journalism History and the Journal of Media Law and Ethics.

He was a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, Author's Guild, National Writers Union (UAW/AFL-CIO), The Newspaper Guild (CWA/AFL-CIO), and the Society of Environmental Journalists. He was a life member of the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, and was indicted into the national scholarship honor societies Phi Kappa Phi (general scholarship), Kappa Tau Alpha (journalism), Pi Gamma Mu (social sciences), and Kappa Tau Alpha (sociology.) He is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the East, Contemporary Authors, Who's Who in the Media and Who's Who in Education. Dr. Brasch earned an A.B. in sociology from San Diego State College, an M.A. in journalism from Ball State University, and a Ph.D. in mass communication/journalism, with a cognate area in both American government/public policy and language and culture studies, from The Ohio State University.

He is survived by his wife of 34 years, the former Rosemary Renn the most wonderful thing that happened in his life and whom he loved very much; two sons, Jeffery Gerber, Phoenix AZ and Matthew Gerber and his wife, Laurel  (Neyhard)  of Bloomsburg, a sister, Corey Brasch of Sacramento, Calif; a niece, Terri Pearson-Fuchs, Calif, numerous cousins; and his beloved dogs Cabot and Remy.

Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, at 2:00 p.m. at the Dean W. Kriner Inc. Funeral Home & Cremation Service,  325 Market St., Bloomsburg with family friend, Nathaniel Mitchell officiating. Interment in Elan Memorial Park, Lime Ridge.

Friends may call at the funeral home on Tuesday from 6 - 8 p.m. or Wednesday from 1-2 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Walter M. Brasch Scholarship Fund,

c/o First Keystone Community Bank, 2301 Columbia Blvd, Bloomsburg, PA 17815 or to

Mostly Mutts, 284 Little Mountain Rd., Sunbury, PA 17801