On the news…..

I never watch the news. Seriously. I don’t enjoy watching it when I do. I really realized the news was not good for me whenever I was home alone. I knew I couldn’t watch crime shows, horror movies, ghost hunters, anything that might get my brain a little paranoid prior to trying to fend for myself in the dark. The news fell under that category eventually.

For one, the "news" doesn’t really report the news. It reports the version on reality that if feels will get it ratings. People want to feel informed in a strange way. My local news consists of how many shootings, murders, rapes and robberies have taken place lately. For some this might make them feel safe. The news is pointing out the bad guys, putting a spotlight on the guilty, highlighting which areas to avoid, smearing a mugshot on the screen. Add in a few minutes worth of weather, traffic report and repeat it all again in 5 minutes. I hate it.

The media induces fear. It creates a desire in the masses to watch the news so they can stay one step ahead of whatever is going to kill them next. It just creates paranoia. It conveniently steers away from the really heavy issues, and veers quickly back to fluff news, panic stories and outrage at silly shit.

I gained part of my distrust for news honestly. When I lived in Georgia, my ex was in the military. From time to time he would come home with the honest and gruesome details of a training accident. The report that would follow in the paper was shamefully bland, being sure to deflect all blame away from training practices, or ignored safety checks. Just another young boy lost, and surely it was his fault. Mind you this was pre 9-11, anyone could drive on a military base without being checked. Prior to well publicized deployments, this was a rapidly deployed base, and there way NO media, No big returns, NO yellow ribbons, No big banners for those lost in Iraq. There were 19 year old boys, scared to death with tears in their eyes, asking out loud if they were ready to kill someone……..and the media didn’t care then, so why pretend now.

Even the weather is sensationalized. I have been to Florida many years in a row on vacations. One year we were slightly ahead of Katrina on our entire way home. The news didn’t give us the "get the hell out of Florida!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" that would have been earned by Katrina. Years later, when The Gents aunt died, we found ourselves in Florida during hurricane season again. To listen to the weather channel it was a miracle we didn’t get blown off the coast line. As they talked high winds and devastation over St Pete, board your windows and hug your kids……..I was floating blissfully in a pool in St. Pete. An occasional break I would take to wait out a short storm, and back to floating I would go. Sunshine, warm weather and a walk on the beach that night.

It’s no wonder I have been painfully misinformed on the last two hurricanes to blow through. A few years ago, jaded by my distrust of even the weather channel. We were underprepared for a hurricane. Trees down, roads flooded, power out, roads blocked, we were short on everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! Shit out of luck rings a bell. The next year, per the weather channels urging we were ready. Bathtubs full of water, fridge stocked, toilet paper for days, candles, flashlights, generator gassed up, non-perishable items, card games, board games…………and NOTHING.

So we got Bin Laden, Saddam, the world is safe. Our troops are backing out, right? What about North Korea, hmm we can’t put that in the headlines anymore. Oh yah, mixed kids and cheerio commercials, that is important. Marriage equality, they don’t care, it distracts us. We are simple minded, we are vulnerable to fear, we are lazy.

I turn off the news. Some may feel it is ignorance that leads me not to care. To me it is ignorance that makes others care believe. My life is the same whether I watch it or not. If watching the news does not benefit my life, then why do it. If all it creates is fear of my world, why should I indulge. How will knowing this information change your day to day life. Just like homeland security and the color scale. What do you do differently when the security threat is a code orange, versus a code red. Nothing, and I mean Nothing about my daily life changes. I do not invite fear and deception into my psyche when not appropriate. I do not want to become enraged at half truths.

Sure, I am not up to date on world events. Some would argue that knowing such things keeps one aware. But, if that awareness comes from false information, what has been gained?  Anything really important, or any big story, I will hear about it through the news watchers and paper readers. So why worry, anything really important will be gossip soon.

I am not a conspiracy theorist, but maybe I have read "1984" a few too many times. I see the world differently. I want to see the best in the world, I still want to believe in truth and integrity. I want joy and bliss, and quiet simplicity. I want awareness to come from my own eyes, my own experience. And when I want to know what’s going on out there, beyond my control, beyond my immediate awareness, I want it to come from a source I trust.

If it is ignorant to want the truth, then there is the irony of it all.  

Until Next time

later