For nearly two weeks now I have not read, listened to, or watched any news source other than science news and local weather. So that means for a little over a week now everybody has told me all about the goings ons in New Orleans.
I feel like an old farmer who gets all his news by going to the local cafe every day for lunch and talking with the locals. His entire world view gets formed by what other people think and tell him about current events. Except I can see this taking place. I saw the same phenomenon taking place with standard news sources. A reporter will either write from their personal vantage point, or learn to write from their editor's vantage point. Likely their editor will have the vantage point of the owners. It leaks through. Most news stories in a standard, metropolitan, daily, all have the same feel and betray a similar bias. I wouldn't call it liberal or conservative. The best descriptor I can come up with? Business Casual. What does news sound like coming from friends, family, coworkers, and vociferous strangers? Listen to an eight-year-old tell you about the last movie they watched. Now layer it with heavy opinions usually criticizing the government, a broader vocabulary, and some profanity thrown in for good measure. Yeah, something like that.
And it sounds better. These 'news sources' know that they have chosen to interpret events. They don't feign impartiality. They tell you not what they heard or saw but how what they heard and saw affected them.
And in the last week I have seen awe, anger, sorrow, and something I can only describe as hollow disbelief, not in a negative way, but as one would expect from trying to comprehend something so unfathomable.
Best of all, I didn't waste any time on news. Oh, and I guess the Middle East has remained pretty fucked up, too.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment