Television News

Television News

We are becoming a nation of passive acceptance.

In the days before television and radio people obtained local news by talking to their neighbors. Other news was obtained from newspapers and travelers. Getting the news was an active process, if you wanted to know what was happening in the world you had to work!

Many inventions worked to give newspapers a huge lift in news reporting. Telegraph, trains, and automobiles allowed newspapers to cover much larger areas. Then came telephones and now computers and the Internet. These inventions allow newspapers to be truly global in news reporting.

One problem with this is the attention national and international news gets. Look on the front page of most newspapers and you will see a significant amount of space being devoted to news stories of the nation and world. You have to dig into the newspaper to find the local news.

This is because a newspaper has limited space, so they choose front page news stories to be those which impact the greatest number of their readers. Most major newspapers have 'local' sections that are aimed at a particular locality. You end up having to 'dig' for the local news.

Now take television. If space limitations are a problem for newspapers imagine the problems TV news producers have. In a typical half hour newscast you can not show any news story in depth and could not even cover the news on the front page of a newspaper. To televise all the news stories in a typical metropolitan newspaper (e.g. Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Boston Globe, etc.) it would take 15 hours of reporting (CNN televises nothing but news all day long and they don't cover much more than the Boston Globe or New York Times.)

We often worry about government censorship. Consider, American TV news departments do more censorship than any dictatorship on this planet! If you get your news from TV you are only seeing the news stories that the television station thought was important. You may well have selected an entirely different set of stories had it been your choice.

Yet for many Americans this is their only source of news. Hopefully, it will lead you to wonder what criteria a news department will use to select the stories you see!

Entertainment value! Yep, TV news selects the stories they think will give the greatest boost to their ratings. They do not care if it is important to the decisions you have to make on a day to day basis. They don't care if their reporting is complete. They only care that they have the best ratings, meaning the biggest audience. How do you get an audience to tune in day after day? You entertain them! You make them feel good about your newscast!

A popular theme for TV news shows is scandal and tragedy. Other peoples problems (especially prominent other people) can make you feel better about your lot in life. So scandal and tragedy are the main focus, with just enough important stuff thrown in to make sure you think it is a news show and not entertainment tonight!

I get my news from the Internet. I have access to hundereds of newspapers with all kinds of biases. So with a little work I get the whole story about the events that are important to me. If you watch TV news you get part of the story that somebody feels will make you want to tune in again.

That, unfortunately, is not the end of the story.

For too many Americans we sit passively back and listen to what someone else thinks is important to us. We don't have to think, we don't have to dig, we just have to accept somebody else's word that what we see is actually the most important news stories.

This passivity is beginning to affect other parts of our life. Too many people just sit back in life and say, entertain me, support me, feed me, do it all for me! Notice that everything is for me.

Historically, a hallmark of the criminal mind is the concept that society owes them. The idea that they deserve everything and if society doesn't up and give it to them they will take it. More and more, the average American is beginning to think this same way. All they need to do is sit back and everything is handed to them on a silver platter. No work, no effort, no sweat!

We are not about to get rid of television. I am not suggesting that we do. However, it is not violence on TV that is our problem (hmm, I think I said this before, however, it bears repeating), it is TV itself that is the problem. We, as a society, have to learn to integrate this thing called television into our society. We have to learn, all over again, how to find things out. How to make sure we have the whole story. We need to learn to entertain ourselves and our neighbors. We need to relegate TV to the sidelines.

And the first thing to do is, stop watching television news, it is warped and incomplete. No one can make intelligent decisions based on television news! Try Online Newspapers.

Amen