24 Hour News – We’ve Seen It Before
I’m afraid with the advent of 24 hour news and the sensationalism of TV reporting that we’ve stopped caring. Someone at CNN, ABC, NBC and every other news outlet has a job to create smooth graphic transitions, maintain clear video feed and design logos for every major disaster. Their ability to create news packaging rivals that of a major Hollywood production and competes with million dollar sitcoms. Whichever is most interesting we’ll watch – so the news better be interesting! We have become so calloused and desensitized to the world that our news outlets constantly invent new angles and face-lift the anchors (or just fog out Lou Dobbs). The problem is that we have stopped caring because we’ve seen it all before from terrorism to tsunamis. Now it seems simply that our response to the cyclone in Myanmar is, “Yawn, another disaster in Asia has happened…didn’t we see this last season? Tonight’s ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ isn’t a rerun, let’s watch that!” I know that the news from Myanmar is heavily censored and that there are few western reporters there. But must we have Hollywood quality news in order to care about the estimated 100,000 dead? These people live in poverty, without television, do they care if there’s a glossy photo in Time magazine? Or would they simply want us to know and respond? I haven’t seen this story lead, I haven’t heard much about it, but I care – even if I can’t see Pulitzer prize winning photos. If you care and would like a chance to respond I’m including a link to the Salvation Army who is already responding to this tragedy we may rarely see or hear.
-
-
