I get it now. The epiphany: America’s problem with the media. The disbelief. The cynicism. The skepticism. The uncertainty of what is the truth, just what is truth. The obsession with calling out fake news at every breath.
I, perhaps news media’s biggest advocate, get it now because the national cable news networks have run the pandemic into the ground. Coverage 24/7 of nothing but the coronavirus and the president’s handling of the most critical health and dire economic situation of our lifetimes …. People, you’re absolutely right. The cable guys have exhausted us with ‘sky is falling’ nonstop coverage, such as CNN’s perpetual posted daily updated numbers of cases and deaths in the U.S. and comparably the world. And the virus may just be getting started. Can you imagine the same screaming hyper in-your-face coverage of COVID-19 a year from now?
Broadcast news is a relatively new journalism development, starting back in radio days of the early 20th century. Let us return to those glorious years of Big Band music, soap operas, comedians, funny shows and serial dramas with organ-accompanied cliffhangers, plus old-time gospel preachin’ and foot-stompin’ bluegrass. Radio was vaudeville in a box. News was the last thing on their minds, from listeners to producers. And can you blame ’em? Can you imagine covering The Great Depression on 1930s’ radio like today’s cable news has brought us the latest pandemic:
The Great Depression Year Three! Mr. and Mrs. America, this is Reid Luger bringing you and your red-white-and-true-blue family the latest in our nation’s complete economic collapse. Millions of families with little ones in tow roam town to town, state to state, in hopes of work and food, humbly asking our Lord for their daily bread. Will their prayers continue to go unanswered?!
America’s unemployed make up a quarter of all able-bodied men in their prime working years. The rich man continues to lose big, but his loss trickles down to the little guy, many whose families had nothing to begin with. Homesteads across the country wear foreclosure signs like a necklace, placed there by banks as money itself remains our scarcest commodity. American families pray in cathedrals along crowded city sidewalks or gathered in humble country churches nestled in the secluded wild wood.
Where is God? What must we do to get America back on track, to supply coal into our country’s economic engine? Oh, the humanity!!
(Cue Big Band orchestra “Dancing in the Dark”) Now stay tuned for another hilarious episode of Fibber McGee and Molly, sponsored by Ivory Soap. That’s right, Ivory Soap, the soap of angels, with long-lasting suds, and ladies soft on your hands and ever so gentle for baby’s bath. Ivory Soap leaves you feeling clean and supple, never greasy. Our simple formula rinses off your skin leaving it silky smooth to the touch. So, pick up a bar of Ivory Soap today at your local grocer’s. You and baby will be glad you did! (Cue baby coo)
Ladies and germs
Yes, in the days of yesteryear, news was maybe five minutes a day. Newsmen didn’t talk unless they had something NEW to report. There’s a novel idea.
Cable news went wrong in several ways. One is not realizing there isn’t that much new news to begin with. Then allowing most of the airtime to be opinions, talking heads instead of any new news, just a lot of talk over old news. This makes up the entire 24-hour period. Go to sleep already!
But where 24-hour news really did itself in is not considering the psychology of the human species. Humans, no matter how intelligent or patriotic, can ONLY TAKE SO MUCH. It may be more biology than psychology or sociology. Constant doom and gloom are a turn off, man.
And how is cable news even able to stay on the air? Who is watching this stuff? More importantly, who is buying the stuff from the sponsors? Who has the money? Aren’t tens of millions of Americans unemployed, soon to lose their homes and apartments? That statistic can’t be wrong.
I understand the contempt for the news now. I don’t like that the American people have become so cynical, disbelieving anything and everything reported in the news and distrustful of journalists. Free press is still written in the Constitution, but it seems the American people have erroneously learned to accept this means journalists can say whatever they want. That was never the intention of the Framers. They thought a democratic government could not function if the people do not believe what they read, and now hear and see, in the news.
So, we’ve come to this. A U.S. President who bellows “fake news” when referring to CNN, The New York Times, MSNBC, The Washington Post and all other news outlets who pride themselves in digging for and reporting ONLY the truth. And we have a nation of citizens who not only disbelieve the news but are unabashedly devoted to Fox News, known in journalism and legal circles to play fast and loose with the facts. Fox News’ coverage of President Trump, however, according to a recent media study, actually presents equally pro and con stories, 50/50, while all the other national media are soundly against this president. Not only are the mainstream news obviously leaning against Trump, from the night he was elected, the reporters often snarl and editorialize when reporting on the latest Trumpisms. They roll their eyes, cock their head to one side, and use vocal inflection a blind person could discern as negative and unfavorable of the president.
Reporters, whether writers or broadcasters, are never to let on like they are for or against the subjects they cover. They can grin and bear it and write a book when this part of their career is over. Then they can have their own news talk show and editorialize and pontificate about politics and society. But see, humans don’t generally think like reporters. They listen to broadcast news, even stick to one news channel for decades, and they do likewise when surfing the ’net for shared opinions and news presenters. This is the human condition. It is bigger than journalism, Fox News, fake news, CNN and “Morning Joe.” People are busy. Right now, humans are scared. The news should not peddle fear. The news should be just the facts. And as the human masses don’t have the wherewithal to turn off the news, which is mostly opinion pulled left or right, it would be beneficial for media networks to resort to the standard variety show era featuring more entertainment in the performing arts than repeated hard news. Just think of how many lives truly were saved in the 1930s because of radio with its lively, optimistic, engaging and consistent format with news important but not the main event. Americans already knew they were in a deep depression. They didn’t need to be reminded of it every hour of every day and night.