Over the past thirty years, one could call me a news junkie. I listened to talk radio. I read the paper, watched the news at least a few times a week, and read online. When radio stations changed formats, I chaffed. When they took on hosts that specialized in rage, I left. Recently, with events like the firing of 40% of the Washington Post, I’ve noticed in the radio station’s output, a thinning of the news.
Watching the BBC, reading the New York Times, and again, still looking at social media and listening to the radio, I noticed overall, stories were given a blurb and moved n, jumped over, and on to the next story. It reminded me of scrolling. Nothing stuck, nothing stayed, nothing impacted. Not the senator giving a passionate speech, not the athlete who won something, not the local new spot for food, or the latest struggle in the county. Everything, whether about sewage spewing into the Potomac, or the partial government shut down felt like it had been pressed to remove emotion and/or ethics from the discussion to appear neutral.
And the more I listened, the less informed I felt.
Today, after the morning news, I still don’t know how much sewage is leaking into the Potomac or what the enviornmental impact might be, or when experts think the line might be repaired. I don’t know (and I used to) how many days we’ve been on a partial government shut down or for how long this might last. Google searches lead me to Forbes where I found a paywall.
More research…The government partially shut down as of Friday, and there’s a prediction that since congress is not in session until next week, it will go on into March before it gets resolved. Having lots of friends and neighbors who work for the government, this sort of cyclical bugetary tightwalking is not a theoretical issue. but a bread and butter one. The absence of those with power, coupled with the indifference to those affected by the ongoing perpetual self induced drama, is tiresome and illustrates just how disconnected from real life and real people, those with the capacity to act, are.
Researching Potomac sewage leak –got google ads for companies that repair sewage lines in the area, it took three searches to pull up the Potomac River sewage spill,
“with more than 200 million gallons of raw sewage pouring into the river” since January 19th when a line collapsed, and an estimation of nine months before it is repaired. Apparently we should avoid swimming and kayaking to avoid getting sick. It was a two minute spot on one news cast. Digging deeper, I found a few more pieces, but part of what made it news was not, hey, there’s a ton of biohazardous waste pouring into our waterways, but that politicians were weighing in on who is to blame. So public good…meh, not news….who’s is at fault, now that’s a story.
Now, I did get the answers I sought, but it took time, effort and vetting, things that the news used to provide.
I turned off the news, it gave no answers, it had none, what it mostly discussed was blame.
News like justice, isn’t supposed to pick a side other than truth. News isn’t supposed to give safe answers, but to explain what is going on, and what is needed, for us to be informed and safe. The ideal of what a free press is, is something we should be constantly both striving to maintain and seeking to preserve. The existing format I found online and on the radio, and in print reminded me of websites where you’re given everything you could think of except the capacity to reach a human being.
I wondered if the news coverage was now being written not by AP but by AI. It has that thinness of effort and effect.
It’s not neutral, it’s uninformative. It sounds fearful, guarded, and blood free.
Writing, whether for tv, movie, radio, news, school, creative, or even a blog, should have something of a soul. After all, we deal in words, and in the beginning, that’s all we had, was the Word. The Word was and is Love. The Word was and is God. So when we do not infuse our words with The Word, they lack heart. They lack spirit. They cannot inform or inspire when they are neither true (by omission or comission), nor beautiful (seeking truth, revealing truth or restoring it).
My second oldest has always loved whole milk, and refuses all others. I was brougth up thinking high protein or skim was healthier. At almost sixty, I now recognize I’ve robbed myself of years of delicious unthinned hot cocoa, and I drink whole or skim, but have grown to agree with her preference. It helps me stay strong. Chemo leaves marks on a cancer survivor. We need more to keep our bones strong. The whole milk is better for me. It is preventative and restorative.
The news we’re getting, is skim milk, and it is not as good for our nation’s bones as the whole. I remember what the good stuff tastes like, and I miss it.
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