Quiet
There must be a thousand stories to read this morning. All of the talk show hosts are lit on espressos and xanax, trying to achieve award winning emotion, without going too far. Journalism is a slippery slope these days, and if the balance tips slightly out of the acceptable range, it could mean the end of a career. The news becomes the news.
For every prominent journalist, there must be four more watching them, scrutinizing every word to find hints of racism, incorrect definition of history, a dirty look. The goal of course is to be the first to think up the perfect way to ignite a story to the most extreme level of virility, first. If they can ask the perfect question of their guest, make them angry enough to let his or her espresso/xanax combo get the better of them, and ignite what we all know is at the bottom of their heart, then the mud parade begins. The pecking order is now being fed. Webmasters and producers the world over can begin snipping video, extracting sounds, and tagging the writers with the most perfect, attention grabbing words. After all, we deserve to know what color socks Aaron Swartz was wearing just before our government choked the life out of him; don't we?
Journalism has become one of the most disgusting and defamatory forces the world has ever seen. Yes, there are stories and issues we are entitled to know about, but when these stories are bent and squeezed for our entertainment at the expense of other humans just like us, it should be silenced. The difference between interviewing a politician on his views, and mining him for a mistake in his speech is no longer visible. There is no more news about a corrupt government being corrupt. There is no more news about that bike rider. Watching the journalists burn a man after he has been hung by other journalists is not news; it's perverted.
What about freedom of speech? We are free to speak as we will. We are at liberty to throw verbal grenades at a sighted enemy. We are free to shred each other on the largest possible stage for the sake of entertainment and possibly a promotion. What about freedom from integrity? Do we really need to use the president's children as leverage to make our agendas' known, and then give it prime-time reproduction for a week?
Today, as the media machine is churning out the next potential Pulitzer winning story, wording everything in that direction, and choosing the object that could possibly get them there, nothing will really change. When you scrape the paint off the surface of journalism, you are left with one basic fact; it is an attempt to gain an advantage over the past, and that is a race that none of them will ever win. They are living by the creed of reporting the past as fast as they can.
I suggest they take a day off to focus on what or who is worthy of coverage. I am not suggesting a stop to the hounding of our government or the true crimes against humanity (reference US government), but I do believe that a line needs to be drawn where analysis ends and propaganda begins. The media in it's current state needs to realize that the humanity they destroy is the same humanity they belong to. They are subject to every bad thing that comes from their mouths; just like the rest of us.
For every prominent journalist, there must be four more watching them, scrutinizing every word to find hints of racism, incorrect definition of history, a dirty look. The goal of course is to be the first to think up the perfect way to ignite a story to the most extreme level of virility, first. If they can ask the perfect question of their guest, make them angry enough to let his or her espresso/xanax combo get the better of them, and ignite what we all know is at the bottom of their heart, then the mud parade begins. The pecking order is now being fed. Webmasters and producers the world over can begin snipping video, extracting sounds, and tagging the writers with the most perfect, attention grabbing words. After all, we deserve to know what color socks Aaron Swartz was wearing just before our government choked the life out of him; don't we?
Journalism has become one of the most disgusting and defamatory forces the world has ever seen. Yes, there are stories and issues we are entitled to know about, but when these stories are bent and squeezed for our entertainment at the expense of other humans just like us, it should be silenced. The difference between interviewing a politician on his views, and mining him for a mistake in his speech is no longer visible. There is no more news about a corrupt government being corrupt. There is no more news about that bike rider. Watching the journalists burn a man after he has been hung by other journalists is not news; it's perverted.
What about freedom of speech? We are free to speak as we will. We are at liberty to throw verbal grenades at a sighted enemy. We are free to shred each other on the largest possible stage for the sake of entertainment and possibly a promotion. What about freedom from integrity? Do we really need to use the president's children as leverage to make our agendas' known, and then give it prime-time reproduction for a week?
Today, as the media machine is churning out the next potential Pulitzer winning story, wording everything in that direction, and choosing the object that could possibly get them there, nothing will really change. When you scrape the paint off the surface of journalism, you are left with one basic fact; it is an attempt to gain an advantage over the past, and that is a race that none of them will ever win. They are living by the creed of reporting the past as fast as they can.
I suggest they take a day off to focus on what or who is worthy of coverage. I am not suggesting a stop to the hounding of our government or the true crimes against humanity (reference US government), but I do believe that a line needs to be drawn where analysis ends and propaganda begins. The media in it's current state needs to realize that the humanity they destroy is the same humanity they belong to. They are subject to every bad thing that comes from their mouths; just like the rest of us.
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