The Media/Press

For the longest time Sarah and I have been avoiding watching the news in the morning.  Lately though, we've been turning it on to see what's going on in the world.  This has reminded me of why I stopped watching in the first place.  I just have a growing frustration with journalists in general.  Especially our local news team…but that’s due more to the un-professionalism being painful to watch then the topic of this blog.  The national news, both TV and written word, have really started to frustrate me lately.  I can’t point to a specific turning point or change in my thinking that has brought this about, but nonetheless, it has happened.  It seems to be more the talking heads that frustrate me then the printed word.  Maybe that’s because when writers type out something they have the ability to filter before they publish.  Just this morning I was watching a report where the anchor briefly mentioned the recent photos of US Soldiers that were taken next to dead Afghani’s, the anchor went on to say how the photo’s have caused the military to come out and condemn the soldiers actions.  The part of this that frustrates me is that the way that was told indicates that the government/military was not going to do anything until the photo’s were released by the German media, when in fact those soldiers were already being court marshaled.  Another example is this whole nuclear power plant/radiation scare.  The Media has been consistently exaggerating the effects and the spread of the radiation, which then scares people, only to turn around and get those scared people to watch their “Special Report” where they tell people there’s nothing to be scared about.  Until they watch the morning news the next morning and hear that there’s radiation in Alaska…forget the fact that the amount of radiation is less then you get normally every day anyway.  Is the media/press a bad thing? No.  They have their uses but I think they’ve grown more and more bold in their hunt for ratings which has taken “objective journalism” to a new low.  Sure there might be some good one’s out there but they are few and far between.  I wish there was a news sight that just printed facts and let everyone draw their own conclusions.  No interviews with has been politicians or Hollywood big mouths, just the facts…that would be nice.