Last Monday morning (a week ago), I happened to do something
I almost never do...I turned on the T.V. after the kids had left for school and
before I had to get myself ready for work.
I was just flipping around, but I thought I'd try to find some coverage
on the situation in Kenya (terrorist attack by extremist group at an upscale
mall that had started on Sat.) and at least some report on the church in
Pakistan that had been bombed on Sunday.
I spent 20 minutes changing channels from the major networks and cable
news outlets - ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN, MSNBC - and in that time not one of
them covered either story. Shoot, forget
covering it, none of them even mentioned them!
In that 20 minutes, the ONLY news story discussed on any of them (and it
was on just one) was the terrible flooding in Colorado. The "news" in the time I was
watching...
·
Oprah’s admission of a near nervous breakdown
·
Cher was coming up on the show in just under an
hour
·
Baby pictures of the staff on the Today Show
displayed on the screen for us - the audience to view
·
A recap of the Emmy Awards coverage and how
funny bits of it was
·
How hackers only needed two days to figure out
how to hack the new iPhone 5c
Where has all the good news gone? The real news?? What do these supposed journalists really
think of what they're being asked to broadcast? Maybe they like it...I don't know. I can't imagine that a highly educated
journalist, one who spent years learning how to hone their interviewing skills,
how to get the scoop, what dealing with difficult personalities and persons
with power would be like, can like the fact that they've been reduced to mere
purveyors of entertainment, fluff-piece, sound-bite nuggets that don't connect
with the reality of world events that are occurring everyday around the globe,
and yes, right here in our communities, too.
For example, I'm astounded that as a nation in the time President Obama
has been in office 5, count 'em, 5!!, mass shootings have occurred in our
country, and yet, our news outlets can't be bothered to discuss issues
connected to such even for a few days let alone months afterward. We wouldn't want our news outlets to lend
credence to the idea that gun control and the lack thereof might be a problem,
I guess. But I don't mean to bring a
controversial topic into this blog bit ...I just use it as an example of how
far from real news we have gotten.
Instead, what we see are stories that seem so trivial and superficial,
while real newsworthy events are actually happening in various parts of the
world, but they aren't on our radar. The
owners and producers of our news outlets - the ones who control programming -
do not see it in their interest (that is, good for the bottom line!) to air
these admittedly gritty, difficult, and all too real stories.
I do wonder how others must view us as a nation, when they
go to watch our "morning news" shows.
What message does that send? I
can tell you, I won't be watching, just flippin' around before getting ready
for work, again anytime soon.
I close with two things...years ago, Walter Cronkite was the
most trusted man in the country (based on a survey of the American people). Certainly
don't hear that about any of the current news women or men these days - and why
would we? They're seemingly
entertainment figures more than anything else, peddling puff and cream far more
than real news of consequence and substance for the world. It's embarrassing. Finally, it's pretty telling when a
household's main source of T.V. news is "The Daily Show" right?!
That's what I'm thinkin' about today, this week later, as
life spins around the schoolyard...hope to be back, really back to blog more
regularly. No promises. (Tried holding
myself to that as being resolved....hasn't worked, but I'm not giving up. Come back soon - hopefully I will have
written again.)
'Til then...May your days be filled with laughter for it
buoys the soul - and who doesn't need that!
