American people, although kind-hearted when world tragedies strike, find themselves becoming more divisive, mean spirited and intolerant...and there is an obvious cause...Media Overexposure.
Let's return to those earlier days of news dissemination...the 1950's news cycle and reporting.
I recall local and national news 'print' (newspapers) that indeed slanted towards a political viewpoint however, those newspapers were on a 24 hour release mode. Consumers had 'down time' to digest and 'chill out.' The television nightly news was conducted by individuals the likes of John Cameren Swayze, Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. The verbal news delivery from these gentlemen was packaged with a calmness and even a somewhat reassuring stability...the 'sky was NOT falling' every night at 6:00 PM on the three major television channels. The 'news-disseminating people were not constantly interpreting the news and 'telling' us how to 'think' as so many of today's TV pundits.
Today the news information is constant and unrelenting. It is presented 24/7 on several politically slanted cable networks. Most of these cable news networks overstate the phrase 'Breaking News.' The competition for ratings is driven by sensationalism and finger-pointing angry debate. Our general public is in a state of on-going fault-finding rather than solution finding.
Add to this national news-presentation-phenomenon the personal blogs and Twitter, we American folks appear to be in a never-ending state of frustration or as my Mammy Bennett use to say, "You got yourself worked into a dither."
Many of our presidential candidates demonstrate a less than calm-leadership temperament. Those candidate hopefuls are calling people 'chicken shit' and offering crazy talk of bombing countries 'until the sand glows.'
GOP Presidential Candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are fear mongering as they jump on the recent tragic terrorists killings in Paris and San Bernadino. Their over-the-top hate rhetoric plays to the most undesirable hateful prejudice attitudes amongst us.
Any level-headed Christ-like thinking follower knows that this is not what we wish to have as a President...then again, perhaps like the news reporting, the reader and viewer has changed.
No comments:
Post a Comment