Sunday, April 19, 2015

The Terrible, Horrible, Awful, Tragic News (PB)

“Attention, attention! Another tragedy has occurred somewhere in the world!”

Now, you will never actually see a news heading like this. You will never see a newspaper proclaiming that just another in a long stream of horrible things has occurred. But, think about it. How many times out of ten are major news headings something good? How many times is the front page splattered with terrible, awful things?
               
As I was flipping through articles to write my blog on for this week I realized that most of the titles I was scanning through were proclaiming horrible events in some place or another. A murder, a bombing, a boat capsizing. Oh, and the entire deal with the Germanwings flight that recently crashed. It’s just one after another after another after another. Will it never end? There’s another article about Isis. I’m sure we’ll be hearing about them until the sun explodes.

Wait, wait, this one has promise. Oh, this is just boring.

The entire scroll bar of the New York Times World News section is filled with tragedy to the brim. Just once I’d like to see a nice, non-tragic story that isn’t completely boring. I mean, it’s so exciting reading about how two countries have reached a tax deal, or some other trivial tidbit, but I’d love a good story. A happy, enjoyable story where no one dies, no boring politics are involved, and everybody walks away happy and fulfilled with life. Even upon reading an article that seemed to have a lot of potential I was disappointed to discover it was not a happy tale, but a happy event disguising the boring undercarriage.

Well, I suppose I shall move on to another news site and another day to wait out my happy articles. What’s that saying? Oh yeah, misery loves company.

3 comments:

  1. I understand your viewpoint completely on the subject. I believe that there is rarely any good news out there anymore. I mean there is some good news occasionally but in all reality whenever I look at the news and all I see is 'someone died', 'tensions between two countries', or 'an accident happened'. I guess that's why I do not read the news, because it is all depressing. Overall in the blog I can sense your personal voice and even 'hear' your irritation over this issue. I also enjoyed some of your sarcastic comments because I like sarcasm.

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  2. Every time I check a news source online, I am bombarded with titles declaring "ISIS Strikes Again" or "Teen burned to death in Guatemala." Never a positive article. And eventually, you get so burnt out from reading about the horrors of the world and begin to think that the world is a terrible, awful place and that there is no hope for humankind because all we do is destroy everything. But it's not all true; the media is extremely manipulative and will do anything it takes to gain an audience. If this means enhancing the story and stretching out the gruesome details, they will do so. But it is so rare to find a small bit of positive, honest truth, no blood or scandal or crime thrown into the mix. Perhaps a bit of positivity in our media would do some good for everyone. And not the dull, boring cardboard articles about politics and technicalities, but the local heroes we don't recognize enough. Great job!

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  3. Your sarcasm is on point, Lindsey. I completely agree with you. I love to read the news to stay in touch with the world, and I rarely come across a story of triumph and happiness. However, I recently read an article about a man who survived a Prisoner of War camp during WW2, and he was telling his crazy and incredibly story. It is things like his bravery that make reading the news completely worth it.

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