By Eric Leitzen
Hokah, MN
Let’s face it: 24-hour “news” isn’t news. It hasn’t been news for a while now. When you turn on the local stuff, or when you crack open a local paper, you’ll see what you’d actually describe as news: the most important stuff that’s happening that affects you. The stuff running 24/7? That’s entertainment: celebrities, cruise ships, missing planes, red carpets, blah blah blah… and that’s not even getting into the propaganda stuff. Think to yourself: when was the last time you felt like the big news was delivering news and not the equivalent of snack food? What’s the point of having a 24-hour news cycle when so much of it is closer to reality TV than actual reality?
Like I said before, it’s entertainment. Just look at the mega-corporations in charge of your news: Comcast, Viacom, Disney own NBC, CBS and ABC respectively. The newly created Frankenstein’s monster of AT&T/Time Warner owns CNN. Do you really think those companies want to bring you the hard news? Hard news makes people sad, and it makes people mad, but most importantly hard news makes people mad in a way that makes them want to get out into the streets, and people out in the streets don’t buy things. So it’s better to get them outraged about things that don’t actually matter than to actually show them what’s bubbling below the surface in this New Gilded Age… because the truth is, a 24-hour news cycle isn’t all that necessary.
Wow, Eric, real hot-takes here: “24-hour news is bad.” What’s next, airline food? The DMV?
Hear me out. The biggest news stories, the ones that matter to you, in your home, in your neighborhood… not only are they not getting reported on the nightly, but they haven’t really changed in 40 years. That’s eight years longer than I’ve been alive. Wages aren’t where they should be, the rich have too much of our money and it’s strangling economic growth, we’re focused more on short term profit than long term gain, our food’s not fit to eat, our water’s not fit to drink, people are working longer hours for less money that won’t buy them (or rent them) a decent place to live. To top it all off, we’ve got a government where a few thousand can essentially buy a congressperson for a corporation who then makes millions back from policies that hurt, you guessed it, folks where we live. None of this is new, none of this is all that shocking, so you really shouldn’t need more than an hour every night to tell you that yep, things are really tough for the vast majority of Americans. All the rest of that stuff is just useless junk thrown at you in the hope that you won’t realize the ship is sinking, like bringing out caviar on the Titanic.
We could all be doing better. We should all be doing better. But as long as we keep listening to the talking heads who tell us everything is fine and this is just how the world should be and it must be your fault they shipped your job somewhere that pays a nickel an hour, things won’t get better… and the first step is turning off that 24-hour noise-fest and maybe checking out the local rags.
Now I know this is rich coming from someone who writes for the paper, but I’ll be real for a second. I don’t agree with everything said by the management here at FCJ, and they probably don’t like a lot of what I say, too. That’s the beauty of local media: when it’s someone who can drive over and chew you out (or send angry letters as I get from time to time) it means you have to be held accountable. Last time I checked, that’s what America was all about. Heck, argument was a SPORT in the house where I grew up, so we learned early on that you can fight with someone and fundamentally disagree, but when the chips are down that person is your family… and guess what? We’re all family. Bluff Country, Minnesota, Rural Americans as a whole, we’re a whole famn damily. We may disagree and have it out over tater tot hotdish, but if we also don’t turn around and have each other’s backs, if we’d rather listen to the bobbleheads on TV tell us what the problem is rather than see what’s happening right in our own backyard, we deserve to fall apart.
Beadrin (Pixie) Urista says
I agree- our corporate 24 hour news cycle is much ado about nothing too frequently. However, we must resist the “keep it local” philosophy as well. We all should show interest and concern for our communities, put effort into making things better for our neighbors and trying to understand the problems that are close by but let’s not ignore the larger world and how the big issues do impact the local ones. We musn’t become tribal in our thinking. Tribal thinking devolves into ignorance and that is a real threat. Can we pretend that immigration is a “problem” on the southern border and not see the impact that immigrant workers have on agriculture? Few of us have time, energy or depth of knowledge to grasp tax code, devastating wars all over the globe, environmental policy, etc, etc but we cannot huddle up and pat each other on t he back because everything seems fine on Main St USA. The larger world and our idylic small one are connected. Yes, participate in the issues close to home, volunteer, reach out, be a good neighbor but seek understanding, not isolation.
Anonymous says
How come you didn’t name Fox News?
John says
Because Fox News is the most trusted news source. LMAO!