A Look at the Evening NewsBy Eric MarcarelliMost days I read news online, selecting only certain stories of interest and looking at them from several viewpoints, but tonight to shed some light on American national identity I watched a portion of the news on TV. The news was, for the most part, highly dramatized. Stories were introduced with startling music and bold, intimidating text flashing onto the screen. Out of the six stories I observed, three were directly related to a violent crime, two were political, and one was the weather. The more significant stories-the political ones-were buffered by the violent ones, apparently so that viewers would stay entertained. The first story was a brief overview of the President's recent visit to a Connecticut fundraiser. From there we moved into a much longer segment covering the car that drove the wrong way on the highway and crashed into a police car last night. They dipped out of violence mode momentarily to rush through a 30 second overview of the leaked CIA document that proves the war in Iraq has made America less safe. While this was probably the most important story of the night, it was quickly put to rest in favor of a deep, five minute analysis of an alleged school shooting conspiracy that was never carried out. After that the weather came on and the friendly weather man suggested that I take a light coat if I went out tonight. And then finally the cycle returned once more to violent crime as the story of a murdered women was recounted. The news was clearly being scripted to entertain, not to inform. The average American, it seems, would rather sit with glazed-over eyes at ultimately insignificant tales of destruction than to think critically about the actions the government is taking in the world. |