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Radio Free Montone: Summer News Recap -- Sharks, Ashley Madison & Trump

By John Montone, 1010 WINS

The news watch never stops, even during those lazy, hazy days of summer.

The saga of Syrian refugees flooding into Europe  is an exodus that by its sheer size and by its pull on our common humanity managed to cut through the collective indifference of the vacation season.  And Donald Trump exploded onto the national political stage, outraging many but surging in the polls.  This occurred right after 24 of the 25 people I interviewed for 1010 WINS dismissed the Donald as a clown and a joke…some of them bursting into laughter. 

There were shark sightings on the Jersey shore and shark bitings elsewhere.  Nearly naked painted women popped up in Times Square shaking down tourists alongside  Elmo and Spiderman. And the homeless often occupied our air waves.  Some simply slept on the sidewalks.  Others urinated on them.  And after smoking a type of synthetic marijuana enough of them ran amok screaming indecipherable insults at invisible demons so that "K-2" became headline news.

The two home teams provided drama on the diamond during the summer with aging and vilified Yankees like Teixeira and A-Rod turning back the clock and the Mets being suddenly transformed at the trade deadline into a "contenda."  "Cespedes for the rest of us."

But the story that got my blood boiling was the cyber attack on the Ashley Madison website.  Ashley Madison's slogan is, "Life is Short, Have an Affair."  Whatever the motive of the hackers, who call themselves, "The Impact Team," was "public shaming" of the users or punishing the owners of the site for not providing better security, the damage they did was real.  Millions of people had their personal  information revealed, their privacy violated. 

Radio Free Montone: The Newswatch Never Stops

Back when Ashley Madison first set up shop I scored an interview with a female client.  She was a plain Jane middle-aged woman who spoke timidly of her loveless marriage to a man who had lost all interest in her.  She was waiting until her child grew up to dissolve the union.  Until that time she craved  intimacy and when I interviewed her she was engaged in an extra-marital affair that was providing adequate physical pleasure if not love.  So what?  It was her life.  Not mine. Not your's. Not "The Impact Team's."

My generation of Americans grew up cherishing our privacy.  But maybe we took it for granted.  I just hope that timid woman who ached for the human touch was not hurt.

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