I'm afraid I'm starting to sound like a broken record - like a sad schlep at the end of the bar, constantly dredging up the same old story of pessimism and doom while the happier drunks roll their eyes and call for another round.

I'm afraid I'm becoming a relic - steadily losing the optimism and hope of my youth, and further beaten down by society's continual descent into the depths of mass idiocy.

I'm afraid I'm becoming a pessimist of the worst kind - a pessimist convinced by what he sees around him that he's right.

Yet I keep going. Somewhere Harold Camping is probably smiling.

Last week in this space, using as much vigor as I could muster, I tore into the orgiastic melee that has defined the sports media's recent coverage of Tim Tebow. It's been historic in scope and tenacity - with media-created Tebow content spewing from every direction. And for obvious reason.

It's simple, really. Tim Tebow is the most polarizing professional athlete many reading this column have known in their lifetime. Tebow is intensely loved and intensely hated - with little middle ground to be had in the debate. Thanks to his outspoken Christianity, immense fame and debatable quarterbacking skills, he's the very definition of a lightning rod.

Naturally, in a time when web traffic, ratings, and turning even a meager profit trumps almost everything (a predictable scene set by capitalistic forces directing the newsroom and intensified by the ongoing economic strife) realizes Tebow's ability to draw eyes and has the media pounced on the perfect-storm opportunity like a defensive lineman pouncing on one of the quarterback's awkward fumbles. And who can blame them? After all, polls show the people want their Tebow.

It's Tebow Mania. You can't fight it. The media helped create the epidemic through the stories it decided to tell and the character those stories built, and you better believe the media is happier than hell to feed it back to us in bulk, 24 hours a day. Happier than hell to watch the ratings keep climbing. They've found a keyword that works and they'll keep clinging to Tebow until the well runs dry.

There's just one little problem ... even Tebow, heart, intangibles, great abs and all, can only create so much actual news a day. There are only so many children's cancer wards to visit and so many punt-like passes to throw. How is every program on ESPN's roster, and every sports-related blog on the Internet, supposed to include a piece of ratings-spiking Tebow content faced with these harsh realities?

Luckily, scientists have studied exactly what to do in such a situation.

The answer, as we know far too well by now, is the talking-head pundit - the so-called expert able to offer his or her own "unique" opinion for a salary and wardrobe cost far cheaper than paying for actual journalism. When it comes to Tebow there have been plenty of opinions offered - perhaps a new bar set on the offering of opinions - but the overall phenomenon is far more reflective of our deteriorating media than it is Tebow's infectious draw.

What we're left to stomach is inflated opinion over actual journalism: the very basis for the echo chamber of stupidity we wallow in. Reason is discarded for volume and intensity. Facts are malleable, free to mold in whatever manner is most beneficial at the moment. Opinions - even uneducated ones - have more currency than actual ideas or research. And the public is sucked in by the allure of hype as opposed to substance.

The public, you see, is simple like that. Too many Eggo waffles and CSI episodes can have this effect. The media gladly feeds this simplicity, creating content catered to it instead of pushing for something more meaningful and beneficial. Everyone yells but nothing is actually said. Merril Hoge and Boomer Esiason stay employed and nestled in a comfy tax bracket while the discourse dilutes into sound bites designed more to fan the flames or "go viral" than actually mean anything.

And the echo gets louder and louder - ultimately reaching deafening levels.

What I wrote about last week was larger than just Tebow (is that even possible?). The media's bare-knuckled coverage of the hardworking contemporary icon is simply reflective of the larger (and much more ominous) path society and the media designed to serve it seem to be heading down.

Of course, I also took the easy way out last week. I only dipped my toe in the waters. Poking at the nauseating coverage of Tebow by the sports media shamelessly capitalizing on the saga makes it all feel less consequential and dire. It makes me less of an alarmist - talking about football pundits and not political pundits, talking about Tebow and not Occupy Wall Street.

It's only professional sports, right? A simple diversion.

The trouble is it's all a diversion anymore. The trouble is our society doesn't seem able to (or doesn't care to) identify the difference.

The trouble is it's making us stupid. And if you think our "conversation" regarding Tebow has gotten silly, consider what the same influences are doing to our democracy.

Rest assured the issues are widespread. The same deficiencies and blatant pandering to the lowest common denominator (or most generous corporate sponsor) exhibited by ESPN's 24-hour-a-day coverage of sports - exemplified by the recent blanket coverage of Tebow - has infected every news channel on the dial. Everyone is in on it. Like lemmings, we seem content to believe this is all mass media can be.

More information was supposed to make us smarter. On the contrary - in many instances it's making us dumb.

What the Internet, its boundless possibility and 24-hour cable news have so far built for us is nothing more than this echo chamber of stupidity - carefully crafted foolishness bouncing off itself and endlessly growing in intensity.

More than Tim Tebow, that's what I wrote about last week.

I want out. And you should too.

* Matt Driscoll would like to sincerely apologize to anyone offended by last week's Cup Check headline.