Two drawings by Jeroen Ter Welle (The Netherlands)
Tom Hendricks points out that the news media are very limited in what they report as news. On any given day, the same three or four events are broadcast repeatedly by all of the networks and by all newspapers and magazines. And the subjects covered by the news media are also extremely limited: politics, crime, disasters, war and sports. This is a curious thing when we give ourselves a moment to think about it.
Census estimates indicate that we have roughly five billion people living in the world today, which means that with the passing of every twelve months, roughly five billion years of human experience has occurred. Yet, in all this continuous unfolding of human events, the media can find no more than a few dozen incidents each year that are "newsworthy?"
No, not at all. Many countless events are worth our attention and have profound effects upon our world. There is much more to human experience than war, crime, disasters, sports and politics. The news media cover only a few dozen events because journalism is a business (not a public service), and the 'news' is the product sold by the business. The 'news' we see presented by the media is the same kind of thing as a tennis shoe, a box of corn flakes, or a car.
The news is limited in its subject matter for the same reason that each box of corn flakes you buy is pretty much the same as any other. This is solely to ensure wide and consistent sales. If each box of corn flakes were unique, if the shapes and colors of the boxes changed from box to box, if the contents changed from day to day, the company producing these corn flakes would quickly go bankrupt (yet this state would more accurately reflect the ceaseless eccentricities of the world around us.) This is why you see the same events reported to exhaustion, while countless other events are ignored.
In fact, the news media are not reporting 'facts.' By and large, the news media are circulating rumors. They tell the story, not of what happened, but of what people happen to believe. Only rarely are journalists or their cameras present when the events unfold. Journalists are not reporting what they saw or did themselves, but what other people told them they saw or did, and always after the fact. And often, it is not the people directly involved with the events who report them to journalists, but some other person or persons who are repeating what they heard from the protagonists, or who are speculating about the events in question. The journalist then restates what he or she has heard, and this we call the 'Evening News Hour.'
We almost never hear what the pilot of an aircraft that has crashed has to say about the crash, because once it has happened, the pilot is almost always dead. What we hear are bits and pieces of the speculations (and never the entire statement) of an FAA investigator, as repeated by the journalist. What actually happened in that huge air crash? We will never know; we can never know. What really happened in that secret board room meeting? Even the descriptions (or depositions) of any two of them will have so many inconsistencies that they may as well be describing two entirely different meetings. The issue of 'what really happened' approaches metaphysics, and must forever be uncertain.
But we don't like this uncertainty. It makes us uncomfortable, and we compulsively seek 'the real story' to fill this cognitive gap, not caring that this 'real story' is simply another fiction. The 'news' has been created to meet this demand. And it is for this reason that journalists do not simply tell the news, they also tell us what to think about the news. By and large, we don't know what to think about things that we are not directly interested in, and we seek guidance from those around us in shaping our own opinions. The news media are happy to tap this source of revenue. Thus, the commentators, the op-ed writers, the columnists, the so-called 'spin doctors,' and the like. Thus every so-called 'victim' is to be pitied, instead of being admired for heroism under duress, as we admire in our war heroes. Thus every corrupt politician is to be hated, instead of pitied (a form of contempt) for allowing his or her ambition to rot his or her soul. And thus, all criminals are to be feared (which only gives the criminal power) instead of being properly ridiculed as the fools they are. (As Martin Luther put it: "The devil, proud spirit, cannot bear to be mocked." There is no better way to do war with the evil around us than to ridicule it. Mel Brooks makes jokes about Adolph Hitler. Hitler does not make jokes about Mel Brooks. Who has the greatest power?)
The news is a product, something made to be sold. It is for this reason that the subject matter covered by the media is so limited. It is for this reason that the ongoing developments in art, technology, religion, science, economic, philosophy and the like are not reported on a daily basis. The unfolding of these events is not dramatic, and it takes talent, interest, passion and skill to present these events in a way that is interesting to non-specialists. And, unfortunately, journalists are no different than any other group of people. The rare journalist of brilliance (e.g., Walter Cronkite) is swimming in a sea of mediocrity. The overwhelming mass of journalists are simply earning their day-to-day living and don't have the talent or the interest to make the daily unfolding of non-dramatic events interesting to the general public. It is simply easier to draw an audience by discussing murder than it is by (for example) making the story of the ongoing controversy between analog and digital media interesting and accessible to the general public.
The 'news' is packaged, hyped and marketed. The 'news,' as we see it presented in the media bears only the most superficial resemblance to the actual events, and the distinction between 'documentary' and 'historical fiction' is a phony distinction. They are the self same thing going by different names simply in order to gain admission to different circles.
Having said all of this, the news is not by itself a bad thing. It is simply a thing, like a box of corn flakes, and as such, it is not necessarily a good thing either. It just is. It is just a product that is bought and sold, packaged to suit the tastes of the targeted consumer. And as such, it is our responsibility to be intelligent consumers. Let us beware. The 'news' is not telling us about the world around us, it is repeating what people happen to believe at the moment. It is a form of rumor-mongering, one that gives us only the pre- selected highlights, the few dramatic tips of the otherwise countless, uncountable and submerged events that crowd all around us every day.
Two drawings by Jeroen Ter Welle (The Netherlands)