This is a reblog of a post I wrote many years ago. It is amazing how the sentiments it relates still hold true. I could replace the list quoted in the post with a new, more up-to-date list, but the point would be the same.
Read and discuss among yourselves.
**********
It has been a while since I have posted anything here and I do apologize for that to those who read this blog. Its just that there has been so much going on in my life that I haven’t had a moment to stop and reflect on anything.
Not that there has been a shortage of things to talk about, the list of things I could address is quite long:
• Obama’s preacher – yeah, we all believe you knew nothing about his hate talk.
• Gas prices – it is now actually cheaper to fly from Jacksonville, Florida to Buffalo, New York than buy two-week’s worth of gas.
• Spitzer’s hypocrisy – gotta love a guy who aggressively prosecuted prostitution rings as a DA and then aggressively patronizes them as a Governor.
• Crazy winter and spring weather – some of the coldest temperatures and highest snow accumulations in decades; I can certainly see the Global Warming making things hotter…
• Economic panic – banks backed themselves into corners and created the current foreclosure problems in the sub-prime mortgage sectors contributing to massive market instability and consumer panic.
• Hilary vs. Barak – racism vs. sexism.
• Britney watch
• Lindsey watch
• Heath Ledger
I could go on. But, what’s the point? The media today will take any story and beat it not only to death, but to a bloody pulp which – for the purposes of this metaphor – would be unrecognizable to even its mother.
You may have guessed that I am not a fan of the current state of our media. You would be absolutely right. Media seems to have forgotten that they are supposed to only report the facts, not create, add to, or exaggerate them.
Sure, some of the stories I mention above deserve to be reported on when there are significant new circumstances. But the kind of over reporting that is running rampant is ludicrous. The reporting perpetuates the story and only prolongs the agony of this involved. It changes our society from one that will find out the truth before launching an effort to rectify injustice to a society of mindless lemmings who merely reiterate what the talking heads on the national news desks tell them.
Don Henley, in a solo song recorded while the Eagles were broken up, sang,
“You don't really need to find out
What's going on
You don't want to know just
How far it's gone
Just leave well enough alone
Keep your dirty laundry”
This is the state of media in our country. News is no longer reported it is sensationalized. Gone is straight-forward reporting; in its place are week-long teases about the how the drinking water in our cities is laced with prescription drugs and causing spontaneous sex change in marine life. Gone are reporters who check and double-check their facts before going to press or on the air with stories. Now the thinking is, go with the story we can always retract it later.
Show the death, sensationalize the suffering, get the camera in the face of the down-trodden, stoke the flames of racism and violence, show the faces of the gunmen who walk into schools and mow down innocent by-standers, let them know than can be immortalized by splashing their names and dissecting their lives on live TV.
“Get that widow on the set
Give them dirty laundry”
Read and discuss among yourselves.
**********
It has been a while since I have posted anything here and I do apologize for that to those who read this blog. Its just that there has been so much going on in my life that I haven’t had a moment to stop and reflect on anything.
Not that there has been a shortage of things to talk about, the list of things I could address is quite long:
• Obama’s preacher – yeah, we all believe you knew nothing about his hate talk.
• Gas prices – it is now actually cheaper to fly from Jacksonville, Florida to Buffalo, New York than buy two-week’s worth of gas.
• Spitzer’s hypocrisy – gotta love a guy who aggressively prosecuted prostitution rings as a DA and then aggressively patronizes them as a Governor.
• Crazy winter and spring weather – some of the coldest temperatures and highest snow accumulations in decades; I can certainly see the Global Warming making things hotter…
• Economic panic – banks backed themselves into corners and created the current foreclosure problems in the sub-prime mortgage sectors contributing to massive market instability and consumer panic.
• Hilary vs. Barak – racism vs. sexism.
• Britney watch
• Lindsey watch
• Heath Ledger
I could go on. But, what’s the point? The media today will take any story and beat it not only to death, but to a bloody pulp which – for the purposes of this metaphor – would be unrecognizable to even its mother.
You may have guessed that I am not a fan of the current state of our media. You would be absolutely right. Media seems to have forgotten that they are supposed to only report the facts, not create, add to, or exaggerate them.
Sure, some of the stories I mention above deserve to be reported on when there are significant new circumstances. But the kind of over reporting that is running rampant is ludicrous. The reporting perpetuates the story and only prolongs the agony of this involved. It changes our society from one that will find out the truth before launching an effort to rectify injustice to a society of mindless lemmings who merely reiterate what the talking heads on the national news desks tell them.
Don Henley, in a solo song recorded while the Eagles were broken up, sang,
“You don't really need to find out
What's going on
You don't want to know just
How far it's gone
Just leave well enough alone
Keep your dirty laundry”
This is the state of media in our country. News is no longer reported it is sensationalized. Gone is straight-forward reporting; in its place are week-long teases about the how the drinking water in our cities is laced with prescription drugs and causing spontaneous sex change in marine life. Gone are reporters who check and double-check their facts before going to press or on the air with stories. Now the thinking is, go with the story we can always retract it later.
Show the death, sensationalize the suffering, get the camera in the face of the down-trodden, stoke the flames of racism and violence, show the faces of the gunmen who walk into schools and mow down innocent by-standers, let them know than can be immortalized by splashing their names and dissecting their lives on live TV.
“Get that widow on the set
Give them dirty laundry”
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