NO NEWS?

 

DISCLAIMER: I have the radio on 24/7. There are some breaks for music, but it is mostly news provided by NPR and BBC. If I wake in the morning and there is not a stream of news, either the power went off or there is problem at the station. Or?

 

With all the talk of getting rid of bias news reporting (depending on your personal taste) there could come a time when there is NO NEWS. Reporters would be obsolete from eye-witness viewing an event and journalist evaluations of who, what, when, where and why and presenting it to the public at large in a concise manner that is easily understood. That has been the acceptable process since smoke signals and town criers.

Newspapers were known for their publisher’s slanted political agendas from the American revolution to the desegregation of schools. Radio announcers would pause and phrase a sentence to emphasize a report and a television announcer could raise an eyebrow to question the words spoken on the air.

Imagine, if you will, going to the library and there are NO BOOKS. No reference, no fiction, no history because someone was offended by the words. Words can have many interpretations. The only reading material will be in the home library which may be out-of-date today’s readers.

What if, turning on the television multiple channels and there is nothing there? No talking heads proclaiming the weather predictions, sport scores, food recipes, fashion tips, transportation destinations and oil prices, health advice, movie reviews, celebrity faux pas and the only government reports are the systematic dissemination of information, often biased or misleading, to promote a specific political cause, idea, or agenda. It aims to influence public opinion and behavior by shaping perceptions and beliefs, sometimes through the selective presentation of facts or emotionally charged language. Propaganda can be found in various contexts, including politics, advertising, and social movements.

If the Internet still remains on your phone, the scroll of videos uploaded from shaky cellphone cameras and an opinionated documentary of the occasion is the NEWS without verification or confirming authenticity of the presentation.

If the Internet is disconnected, the only NEWS is the gossip from neighbors. There are no crime alerts or infrastructure maintenance notifications. Alerts to shelter in place due to impending disaster are merely hearsay.  If you constantly scroll your phone in fear of missing out, all you will see are videos from friends and family and strangers viewing what they are eating and wearing and where they are and the kids and animals with a few unverified opinions or AI calculations of what advertising will appeal to you by your history.

On the plus side, every morning I won’t be woken up with sounds of bombs and shooting and screams and children crying with a voice over of the body counts from the night before.

Or there is music?