No News Is Good News
I was reading an article today about a supposed terrorism “expert” who, on a Fox News broadcast, stated that the entire city of Birmingham, England is an Islamic stronghold that non-muslims are not allowed into.
First, I would have to ask where this individual got his information. Secondly, I think I would want to actually VISIT someplace before making such a statement just to make sure I DON’T make myself look like an idiot.
But, as I finished reading the article, I continued down the page to the comments section. Something I rarely do as it just elevates my blood pressure to unsafe levels and causes me to wonder if perhaps there really is no intelligent life on this planet.
On some web sites such as the one I read this article on (Bloomberg.com), I find that the comments are usually pretty evenly divided into two camps:
The “Anyone who watches Fox News is a complete beer-guzzling, gun loving, ultra-right-wing, radical Christian moron” camp
or
The “Anyone who doesn’t like Fox News is a terrorist loving, anti-American, Godless, devil-worshipping communist” camp.
This got me to thinking (I know, right?). Why DO people watch Fox News? Or any other news, for that matter?
As a kid, news time in our house was “shut the hell up and sit down” time. The Huntley-Brinkley Report in earlier years followed by Walter Cronkite in later years. The news back then was everything fit to report squeezed into 30 minutes. News was actually NEWS! Sammy Davis, Jr. watched the Huntley-Brinkley Report and was once quoted as saying, “My only contact with reality. Whatever I’m doing, I stop to watch these guys.”
So why do Americans watch Fox News? Or MSNBC? Or CNN? Or ABC, NBC or CBS?
In a word, “Infotainment.”
Americans have become so engrossed in “reality TV” that they can’t seem to discern news from entertainment and, as a result, ALL news broadcasts seem to have dumbed it down for the masses. Deliberately targeting their audiences to win ratings. Fox News’ appeal came in the form of beautiful people reporting stories in a seemingly “fair and balanced” format that soon played upon the people’s fear of the liberal communist agenda and dismantling of America through political correctness and started their swing to the right.
In a most un-balanced manner.
This caused the political left to shift into high gear and move mainstream media as far left as they could.
No longer could America just watch the news.
We had to choose sides.
I can no longer tolerate watching American news channels. I used to watch CNN Headline News only because it was just the headlines. No commentary, no (not over the top, anyway) bias. Just the headlines.
Sometimes I think Al Jazeera is more “fair and balanced” than most news stations.
As I return to the USA after a long absence, I hope I can watch such a program again. But, for now, I’ll continue to get my news from multiple RSS feeds that I can quickly scan, filter out the chaff, and read if I feel the article is worth my time.
“And that’s the way it is…”
In the meantime, remember:
Life is a Sandwich. Eat it up!
Mike
WELCOME Back!
I agree…we cut cable and stream stuff only. I read online at work all day so I read lots of news from different sites…kinda fond of VICE these days!