The Real Tragedy
My husband and I have been news junkies for as long as we have been together. I can’t imagine drinking our coffee without the morning news on the television, or dinner prep without the evening edition blaring.
I know I grew up like this as I think he did as well.
The problem is that news from all our media seems to have changed since our youth. I remember “just the facts”. It was verboten to interject opinions unless that was the format of the show. Though there wasn’t much competition for the big three media outlets, you felt you could rely on the news to bring you, well…the news.
Not now.
There are several sources that help you decide the bias, if any, for the many news media outlets we have today. I have relied on several to discuss this issue in my classes in the last decade. Here’s a good one.
I have found listening to any source of news these days just gets me flat-out angry. I’m angry that some people can act so stupidly. I’m angry that some people just want to be hurtful and that they will tell a narrative that makes things worse. I’m angry that the government cannot restrain itself. I’m angry at the intrusiveness of their reach. I’m angry at the lies told by both politicians on all sides, but also the media which more and more belies their roots and sells themselves cheaply to the highest bidder. I’m slightly comforted to know there is a name for this “phase” we are in — “Post-truth Politics”. I hope it passes quickly — like the phase one of my daughters was in when the contents of her diaper were worthy of close inspection.
I had a roommate in college who was in the “J” school — the School of Journalism. She was particularly haughty about her choice of work — the Fourth Estate. Meant to keep our democracy healthy. I wonder what she thinks of it now. I wonder what any journalist thinks about their neutrality on issues, their courage to confront propaganda, the lies of the power-hungry, and the graft of the elite.
I try to remember this Bible verse when I can’t take one more minute of this. It comes from Ecclesiastes 1:9:
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
I’m sure that my memory of the 80’s ad 90’s is censored by the ignorance of my youth for as I learn more and more about man’s history on this planet, I believe King Solomon must have been right.
The real tragedy is not the lies, or the power-grabs, or the graft.
The real tragedy is that we believe this stuff. We choke it down with our grain-fed factory-bred burgers and a side of fries in canola oil. And, if that isn’t salve enough, there’s always a craft brew to make it better or at least keep us anesthetized long enough to ignore the truth.
