I remain convinced that there is simply no need for a 24 hr news cycle, and further convinced that such a cycle creates such a swell of fear (especially in the American populace) that it is detrimental to our collective culture. I’m out on the news media. They have become more concerned with making sure that people are watching than they have with finding something legitimate and helpful to say. In my opinion, it is only going to get worse.
The easiest way to tell the media is out to get your viewership is to look at their promos. What fallacies are being employed? It is usually fear. ‘What is in your water and are you in danger from it? Find out at 11.’ Lets be real for a minute. If you were in immediate danger from your water, they would cut into whatever you were watching and tell you. They wouldn’t make you wait until 11 and then bury the piece halfway through the broadcast, so you’ve watched long enough for Nielson’s spies to count you as ‘in’. None of that has the smell of a news media operating in your best interests. Instead the media opts to tell the stories that will get people watching. They scare us and paint the world as constantly being on the brink of war or famine or drought. Once in a while–usually on holidays–they’ll drop a ray of sunlight into the segment, just to switch things up.
The media is open about this. Les Moonves, the defacto head of CBS praised Trump’s media coverage as being ‘Damn good for business’. Les did not say he was good for the country. He said the opposite in fact.
The point is, the media is not on our side. A policy of fear and shock and showmanship has turned real news into a circus and we are left to watch the performers and never really know what is really going on.