Recently I've had the feeling that George Orwell was on to something when he wrote 1984. The government is trying to distract us from the state of our economy, the lack of jobs and the men we still have at war by giving us feelies. Oh, we don't have actual feelies yet, unless you count that deal at Disney World where it feels like the mouse runs across your feet, but there is precious little real news out there and more of the "ah" stories. You know the "ah" stories. They are the sweet stuff about the cat who tracked its owner 1000 miles across country after being left behind in a move. Or the celebrity garbage that makes you think you're watching Entertainment Tonight instead of the national news.
I don't know where to get news anymore. The same stories are repeated again and again on TV, on radio and apparently on the sites I haunt on the internet. Weekends are horrible because apparently all of these sites take a day off then and the stories are a repetition of the stories that are repeated during the week.
I used to think Twitter was the answer but not really. I can find out about the presidential election in Egypt there, but I don't know really who is writing it.
At various times, I've heard all of this is the fault of the liberal news media. Then I heard it was the fault of the one percent who own the media outlets. Let's not leave out the government who tries to keep things from us.
Yeah , it does sound crazy. But the fact is, I still don't think we hear much actual news anymore.
Having said all this, I have to state that I never wanted to write news. I think it's a truly difficult job. I've always held the opinion that there is no truly unbiased news just because news is written by humans who, by their nature, all have biases.
We are writers. We should have the answers to this. So where do you get your news?
3 comments:
I get a lot of news over the Internet. I get updates from the Washington Post, NY Times, NewsMax, The Daily Herald and WLS talk radio.
Interesting how the same stories sound so different depending in the venue. That's why I like to get a variety.
How about National Public Radio?
I agree with you, and would add one more dislike: when the news time is spent advertising the headlines that will be covered "next." But next is always another five minutes of commercial advertisements. And then before the 'Next' news is shown, a slide show of past story headlines scrolls across the screen.
I tend to get my news from the local cable television channel, which shows it over and over every half hour ... whenever I'm free to watch it.
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