What has become of our news? It is just a television show like everything else. There are no cable news channels anymore, only cable entertainment and cable bigotry channels. Coverage of events that make no difference to us fill-in time between blinding hatred that would not be tolerated in any other social setting.
The news seems like it used to be a public service, a way of keeping people informed of what was going on outside of their immediate area. People were still fighting for some time after the Civil War had ended because word travelled slow. Today's telecommunications make information almost instantaneous. Shouldn't we be that much more informed, that much better informed? Shouldn't we have the information we need to make educated decisions as citizens because of our news capabilities?
The freedom of the press allows then to get access to places the rest of us cannot in order to cover issues and hence inform the rest of us. Information, and therefore news, should be above the influence of money. Television stations are making more than enough money, so why do they compromise their news programs in the name of higher ratings?
i could go on and on about the tabloid type coverage being passed off as news, or the 'if it bleeds it leads' mentality but something far worse is rumored to be true. Stations were said to have been offering Paris Hilton money for post jail interviews. Please, say it ain't so.
The problems with this are numerous, everything from 'why does anyone care about this story' to 'why would she need more money'? The problem i have with this all is supposed news departments now paying for a story. How fundamentally and practically wrong is this precedent? The news should be the news, and that information should be truth. In an all too short a time our news has gone from information to reality show type entertainment and recently to a new level where the 'actors' in our news shows are now being paid.
Our politicians have lost there way and now the check that was supposed to be keeping an eye on them has become lost on their own, distracted by another type of check: the fat paycheck. On top of all this, the major religions of our country have been plagued with pedophilia and greed at unparalleled levels. What is left in this country to believe in?
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