I think over time news broadcasts forgot that they were the witnesses for the people and became more of an entertainment broadcast. They replaced substance with spin and began to focus more on puff pieces. Call it the junk food for the mind. The news became a ratings game especially when cable news came into our lives. There one can sit on a 24/7 basis and become mesmerized and lose their humanity as well. No wonder some call it the idiot box.
Your emotions are assaulted on a constant basis as you tune into various news talk shows in which you have the host and guests alike all screaming above each other. It is no wonder why I like to read the news over hearing this assault on the senses. There I can sit quietly and read my news paper and digest the story and have a chance to at least think about it.
Instead of informing us we were given wall-to-wall coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial. During that time, I seem to remember cable news networks broadcasting that one trial for eight hours a day. In recent months we have been force fed everything from Brittany Spears to Anna Nicole Smith. The latest one that every news show is focusing in on is American Idol’s, Sanjaya Malakar. Help!
When big stories do break that take countless lives such as the Oklahoma City bombing, September 11th, Katrina or any number of natural disasters, we in our living rooms sit stunned or worse where some may not even feel at all. I think we sit stunned is because we do not know how to process what is being presented to us. It is like going cold turkey after being forced fed junk news. We somehow have to realize that there is real pain out there and even those padlocked and released briefly from the news studios are even forced to confront man’s mortality.
During Katrina, I do remember seeing the emotional side of Geraldo Rivera by viewing this feed Horror Show. At that point there is no producer force feeding him any talking points in which Fox News has been guilty of which tend to favor the Bush administration.
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