The Selective Compassion of the Mainstream Media

When I was in college at a time when there were still only three main networks, I read a book, the cover of which is pictured above. "News From Nowhere".  I can't remember if I was assigned to read it or I picked it up on my own. Probably, it was the former reason. The thesis was that what was on the news, governed, and directed by corporate goals and necessity (largely I would think financial) was not to inform the populace but to stir them up, to cause excitement, so that the viewer would continue to view. Reality was not a value. I saw examples of the validity of the thesis when I worked as an intern at a local news channel WOR, in New York. I went out on a couple of stories, both in the Bronx. One was about a hospital in danger of closing. We got to the site. There were a few people mingling, unhappy with the possibility of the loss of the hospital. There was one child, in a stroller. The camera lens focused on the child. To watch the story, edited from the mass of film taken, was to stir the heart about the heartless minions of corporate greed. Another story was at Bronx Community College. There was some sort of takeover of a building. When we got there, the kids were playing frisbee and eating lunch. Once the news were there, the protests began, or resumed with the concomitant shouting appropriate to activism.

These weren't big stories, and the stakes weren't terribly large. But I remember thinking that the editing process and the reporter's charged words changed the essence of what the consumer would see. The facts would be muddled, and the tone and tenor of the event and its consequences were made dire.

I can tell you that some 47 years ago, the book and my small experience had profound effects on me. With the explosion of technology, cable, the internet, digital everything, the goal of the mainstream media has not changed, while truth and reality have been turned utterly on their heads, along with the mental health of many American viewers.

I thought that the media had reached its nadir with the Kavanaugh hearings. But there is always a little lower human nature can go.

The media posits great care of Americans who have died (possibly, there is news, if one can believe, that the CDC told hospitals to label deaths coronavirus related even if they aren't sure of it) from the coronavirus, and the health of those who may be infected. They label right wing anyone who might say a word about the economy being trashed every time "Breaking News" is presented, even though it is the average American suffering most from the busting economy--another group for whom they pronounce great concern. I think I heard CNN's ratings went up during this last month, when before, unlike the economy in February, it was in the dumps. Life is good for the reporters who did not lose their jobs, except of course for the ones like the FOX reporter who dared to suggest that the coronavirus crisis was being manipulated into another episode of the nearly four year long "impeach Trump" show. It doesn't mean anything, I suppose, that Ms. Pelosi and friends are seeking to create some new governmental group to investigate how Mr. Trump has handled the virus containment process.  Anyway, Fox is not immune from the "if it bleeds, it leads" mentality, and watching the bottom line rather than support for the marketplace of ideas. And as to Mr. Trump, his a lot of death comment doesn't help. Anyway here's a number. 

Approximately 40 million American adults — roughly 18% of the population — have an anxiety disorder, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Safety, health and finances seemed to be the greatest sources of anxiety, according to the APA poll.

And, depression? Another 16 million, about 6 percent of the population. So nearly a quarter of Americans struggle with a condition that one could say might be exacerbated by the never ending speculations, projections, models of worst case scenarios thrown at them from the exponentially increasing news desks and news sites. And just as happened with the SARS outbreak years ago, when the coverage was increasing but was by no means like it is today, people began to feel suicidal. 

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/covid-19-is-likely-to-lead-to-an-increase-in-suicides/

If the media is all about drama and excitement, like it was 47 years ago, like it was I suppose back in 1898 when "Remember the Maine!" was all the rage (but when all there was were newspapers) then I guess the anxious, the depressed and the suicidal are out of luck. The media can't be expected to care, unless it means great ratings and oodles of money. And they complain about the 1 percent. 

And then, add in ye old social media. I haven't read any posts on my page for the last nearly 40 days, though I have posted this blog and the odd article.  Nor can I still watch the news channels. I do read articles, left and right, and possibly in the middle (even what is in the middle is debated information these days) and I have to know when it is safe to go out again after all? But when I left that forum it was Lord of the Flies for adults. 

It would be nice if the mainstream media just gave information as new facts developed--facts, we used to know what you were--rather than pounding at us like, well, this is what it feels like to me, "torturers". 

I do not believe that the media seeks to inform the public. I haven't believed that since I was 19. If you think that they are wonderful, objective, compassionate, well, we just have (yet) another difference of opinion--until differences of opinion are forbidden by law, rather than by mere political correctness.