When I first watched the movie "Network" in 1976, it was kinda funny, and I remember thinking as a 20 year old: "Wow, how can news BE like that?"
Well, now it is LIKE THAT in 2018, 42 years later and the "News" as we know it has de-evolved into "entertainment". Has politics also become the WWE?
When news becomes a profit-centered business we lose the basic premise of News, Editorial commentary, and truthful journalism that is intendended for the public good.
I remember watching the news with my family as a kid, and at the end of a local news broadcast in the evening, while we were eating dinner, there was an editorial of some sort. Whether by a viewer, the GM of the station or even the Mayor of the town, the subject matter was always concerning matters for the public. It was not to promote or garner political or commercial favor. It was for THE PUBLIC GOOD, dealing with public issues. Like a new Library, or not building a parking lot where a park should be.
We see very little of that now in broadcasting on the major networks. The cable news channels are a joke. Of course Fox News leads the propaganda pack, but they all do it to some extent. Colbert may have coined the word correctly: "Truthiness".
I remember watching and hearing (on Twitter) that the news networks seemed to just fall in love with trump? Why? Because he's entertaining, whether for the good or bad. They covered him a lot more than those yuge crowds for Bernie Sanders. That made me wonder.
Sanders and trump were both getting large crowds, but for vastly different reasons.
Sanders was getting people because Bernie Sanders was liked by the people for his policies and what he stood for. The other candidate was also liked, but because he was trump, the guy who liked the WWE and had a "reality" show on TV where he fired people and turned everyone against each other (why I don't know)?
I've always personally loathed trump. So I am not neutral on the issue. Sorry not sorry.
My father loathed him. He called him "An assholes's asshole". My father rarely cursed. So him saying that was a testament to the guy who was my dad, who I respected a lot--a smart, stable guy. I also saw how trump treated women and talked so arrogantly. His "associates" and the people he liked were disgusting to me. I never understood his "reality" show either. Making "You're Fired" a tag line. How nice. NOT.
Going back to the "Network" thing: News is not news anymore. It's endless analysis and propaganda. Corporations are running things and as I've said many times on Twitter: Fascists do and say shit like that.(TM)
People rely on the news. Some People believe the network anchors. The morning show glamour guys and gals on their colorful, shiny and bright sets with heavily made up people in their blue suits and yellow dresses and black stilettos doing the weather on weekends is just as fake as you can get. Plastic spares no expense.
There are some break out journalists, like Ronan Farrow, but is it just a bit of controlled opposition to keep the masses titillated?
Reality does break through sometimes though. When disasters happen Anderson Cooper is there in his black tee shirt and jeans. He's there in the middle of the night. He wants you to watch.....the commercials after he's finished talking and squinting at you like he's so serious and concerned.
You'll see someone from MSNBC on the scene with boots up to his (or her) waist in a flood saying s/he'd just met a woman floating by on a bright blue raft floating along. Expect a clip on the evening news.
But nobody is talking about the slaughter in Gaza and Yemen--and who knows where else on the planet atrocities and evil is taking place? We won't know because everyone in America is talking about what trump is doing, what his cohorts are doing--whether they're getting indicted or they're in jail or doing another plea bargain, because all the news channels are obsessing over one small detail like it's the only information the world. America is the center of the universe. Followed by the next day's trump incident designed to divert everyone's attention away from other more important issues facing our world today.
A dysfunctional system based on perpetuating itself and sustaining itself at the expense of every one else. Kinda like sands in an hour glass, this is the stuff we have to deal with every day. It's become normalized.
Is the whole really greater than the sum of it's parts? Sometimes I see it as the opposite. Which goes against a main thesis in crap I was taught in college. There are way more of us than them. "They" have more power and money and they've slowly stashed it away. I'm probably missing the point.
I've been lucky, and not so lucky. I'm grateful for what I have (and for some of the things I do not have). I'm grateful for trying to move forward despite the obstacles along the way. But I want to continue, I want my child to continue. I want humanity to continue. I want the planet to continue. I want the Universe to continue.
Am I the only one who feels this way?
PS: This is my first real writing for the Steemit community. I'm just learning and poking the bubble to see if I may come in. I like it here.