On my hour long morning commute, I listened to NPR and was saddened to hear of another mass murder over the weekend. What struck me the most was that the majority of the hour was spent on race relations. Although the stories were masked in different reports (e.g., Right wing leader in Brazil, the shooting, the caravan in Mexico, etc.), they still focused primarily on race. At least 30 minutes of the hour could be contributed to the umbrella issue, as if it were the most important issue mankind has before it. Ironically, at the top of the hour there was a report of less than a minutes that indicated the Earth’s climate devastation may be irreversible within 12 years – much sooner than previously thought. Yet, the Media bias continues to focus on issues that cause the greatest viewership, as opposed to issues of the most significance, and Media focus on negative reporting.
My Aunt, from a foreign country, visited last week and the conversation turned to news, and I was distressed to learn that the whole world was caught up in the Kavanaugh case. We joked (although sadly it is nearly the truth), that for the past few months all we heard about in the news was China, Trump, Iraq, Kavanaugh, Khashoggi, Brexit, and immigration. I wonder what the world would be like if the Media published equal amounts of bad news and good news? Until researching for this post, I didn’t know an entire state in India grows organic food, a solar farm was built on the remains of Chernobyl, and Istanbul allows people to pay for public transportation by recycling – in the train stations; all three of these stories are positive news about one of the most important issues facing mankind. As Anne Murray sang in 1983, “We sure could use a little good news today.”