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I don’t really believe that American media is liberal, conservative, libertarian, vegetarian or otherwise. I do believe, however, that our so-called “liberal media” is suffering from significantly impaired cognitive function. For the past several weeks we have been bombarded with such news stories as a southern cook’s use of racial slurs, a tennis champion’s insensitive remarks on rape, a rapper’s lyrics concerning Parkinson’s Disease, a reality star’s baby name choice, a football player’s alleged murderous ways and a dead pop star’s diminished dance moves.While each of these stories make for interesting conversation around the proverbial office water cooler, none of them affect any change for anyone besides the people on which they are based. Paula Deen and her brother employed poor judgement in their use of racial slurs. So what? Recently, the Supreme Court ruled on a case that directly affected the ability of our government to force government-funded organizations to publicly express views which echo the government’s views. One story affects the freedom of speech for one. The other story potentially affects the freedom of speech for many. Guess which story most water-drinking folks know more details about.
It could be that the news-watching audience is to blame. Perhaps we tune into more celebrity-based news because we have a bias toward following the rich and famous. “Entertainment Tonight” has been on the air since 1981. That’s 32 years of reporting on athletes, rock stars, actors and other luminaries which has since spawned E! Television Network and shows such as “Access Hollywood,” “Extra,” “TMZ” and “Inside Edition.” “Entertainment Tonight” and its sodden industry sisters could not have stayed on the air without the support of viewers like us. But, if these shows exist specifically to cover the news of the famous why don’t local and national news outlets focus more on local and national news?
In the age of the 24-hour news cycle, we should all have a very clear understanding of how Obamacare works and what provisions are in it. We should have an intimate knowledge of each and every case on which SCOTUS rules in addition to those concerning gay marriage, affirmative action and voting rights. We should know the state of our government bureaucracies, their specific services and whether or not those bureaucracies are affected by sequestration.
We should know all of the names of our state and federal legislative representatives and on what legislation they are working. We should know our local mayors, judges, council people and tax commissioners. We should know whether or not Atlanta police officers are receiving pay raises based on the amount of tickets they write. We should know what Atlanta police officers were arrested in a federal corruption probe.
We should know where hungry citizens can go to get a free meal every day and not just on holidays like Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We should know where students who can’t afford healthcare can go to get an annual check-up. We should know what resources are available at our local libraries. We should know our community’s high school dropout rate, rate of incarceration, rate of teen pregnancy and rate of HIV infection.
There’s no shortage of local, national and global news out there. We live in an age of free-flowing information where more people are talking more than ever before. We count on our so-called liberal media to separate the garbage from the relevant matters. We already know where we can go to get our garbage. We’ve known for the past three decades. Yes, we do have the Internet. Yes, some of us do have parents, teachers and mentors to clue us in. For the most part, most of us rely on the morning or evening rundown to find our way. Is it too much to ask of our news outlets to cut the bull and get to the good stuff?
