State of the Media

I’m a fan of the news media normally. I grew up reading a newspaper nearly every day and when adulthood arrived I often read two or three newspapers daily. Sunday was a day devoted to church and newspaper enjoyment. I reveled in most sections of the paper – world, state and regional news; financial matters; weather and crosswords; and special reports of significance that delved into the roots of the issue and what that meant for future developments.

Today I do not read any paper. Instead I scan the internet for information that feeds my need to know and follow up on areas of personal interest. I do not dwell on celebrities, commercials, travel, automotive, sports or contemporary culture. I get updates on weather, health issues and technology as it becomes pertinent to my life.

Yesterday, January 25, 2016 I listed what my MSN home page carried as news of the day. Here it is:

MSN Web Site: 1/25/16

1. East Coast Blizzard aftermath                         WEATHER/REGIONAL
2. Super Bowl teams determined this weekend                  SPORTS
3. Cold Weather in Asia; Zika Virus to America; search for 3 escaped inmates         WORLD NEWS
4. Pentagon wants psychologists to end ban on interrogation role GOVERNMENT
5. Career corner: top industries for job seekers; body language for interviews; saying no to an offer                          CAREER
6. Latest safety recalls on cars                AUTOMOTIVE
7. Stars who were older than their teen roles       CELEBRITIES
8. Sale story on Xbox              COMMERCIAL 
9. Weight loss tips     PERSONAL HEALTH
10. Politics: Obama cabinet officials lining up behind Clinton; billionaire aiding Cruz; Iowa caucus roles to decide answers                             POLITICS
11. Daily education tips for self improvement                      EDUCATION/SELF HELP
12. Weekend videos: storm from space; panda winter weather enjoyment; trapped sloth                         VIDEO PUBLIC INTEREST
13. Hollywood Oscars Black issue          ENTERTAINMENT/CELEBS
14. Finding a restaurant for $10 meals or less                      CULTURAL
15. Entertainment news; celebs                               CELEBRITIES
16. Richest person in each state                              CELEBRITIES
17. fixes for annoying health problems                 PERSONAL HEALTH
18. Beautiful places worth visiting          TRAVEL
19. Valentines Day preparations                             COMMERCIAL
20. Gadget Geek President and limits in the oval office                     TECHNOLOGY/POLITICS

1. NEWS   1
2. CULTURAL   4
3. POLITICS   1
4. CELEBRITIES   4
5. TECHNOLOGY      1
6. COMMERCIAL   2
7. TRAVEL   1
8. SPORTS   1
9. WEATHER   1
10. AUTOMOTIVE     1
11. HEALTH   2
12. MISC PUBLIC INTEREST   1

Please note the array of items and ‘departmental’ sorting. The summary at the end shows the tale: 1 news story; 1 political summary. That’s it for the serious stuff.

Two items were devoted to actual commercials to sell or place a product or service. Four articles were devoted to celebrities. Cultural items were not much better.

If you must know (and you should!), most items were not written with depth sufficient to keep the reader informed. Some articles were only 75 to 100 words. I don’t mind recaps or summaries to speed the reader along, but there should still be material provided for the reader to digest if he wishes to.

I don’t expect a Sunday Newspaper edition every day. I still expect something like that once per week. But the daily paper should be more than a digest of the news like USA Today. That newspaper does a credible job as a hotel paper across the nation. The business traveler needs that sort of thing, but home residents need much more. Of course the internet provides ample follow up for the serious pursuer of the news. Those pursuits, however, are time consuming and require devotion and academic discipline to acquire.

The bottom line of today’s post is this:

1. The news media is pandering to the lowest common denominator among us to get readers, ratings and advertisers. It is a business in this format and the product suffers greatly.
2. News makers take their cues from what gets published or broadcast by the media. They fall in line and feed the monster.
3. Result: the nation is fed junk news most of the time. And we all suffer from that.

An uninformed public will not make decisions in daily life that make for a strong and intelligent nation. Also, elected officials, agency officials, and corporate executives will lose their ethical discipline and allow poor performance to evolve.

Life is not a popularity contest. It requires excellence of thought, study, work and ethics to keep a nation humming at world class levels.

What do we want from America? Selfish goals or national ones? If the latter we must find and elevate those who meet high standards, our standards. Accepting those with the lowest common denominator rankings cheapens us horribly.

Witness the current gaggle of political candidates for President. Shameful boobs mostly. Where are the serious candidates who edify our times with intelligence and discernment?

Please God we do better by Election Day. With or without help from the media, it is still our job as citizens and voters to do the right thing.

Maybe the media will get the message and make improvements?

January 26, 2016