I hate the news. I actually do. Its not that I have a problem with the fact that people come on the telly to tell you whats going on in the world, its that I have a problem with the fact that people come on the telly to tell you anything that they think will make you tune in and hopefully stay put for the ads. As I type, a whole world is going about its business outside my window. I don’t think the world is an inherently bad or malicious place, but neither do I think it is inherently altruistic or good. I think its simply indifferent. People will go on about the importance of giving, and how we need to look out for one another in order to make the whole thing work, and in fairness people do give, but why do they do it? Is it to make things better for other people or to make themselves feel better for having given it?
Anyway, today I am annoyed at the news because it masquerades as something that it isn’t, and it has led people to believe that it (television news channels in particular) exist to bring you news. When it obviously doesn’t. Its the other way round. It doesn’t want to bring news to you, it wants to bring you to its advertisers and employs some very clever ways in which to do so, like sending lads out to war zones to take pictures of other lads out killing each-other for our betterment, and somehow they manage to do this without any of us ever seeing and actual dead people. Well, no messy ones anyway. But the thing is, normal people have a healthy appetite for information, and so we will turn on the news in order to get some. Or open a paper, with newspapers our predicament worsens, and they have the decency to be openly partisan with the likes of John Waters and watsis name from the indo (there are two of them actually) telling us that bloggers are stupid when in essence they do the very same thing, only they feel better about themselves for doing it because someone is stupid enough to pay them in the belief that people read their spew for any reason other than to instill a little hope that there are people worse off than me on a Monday morning.
I think the idea is to get your info from as many sources as you can and try to come to a conclusion and derive your opinions from what you read combined with what you know about human nature and humanity itself. For example, my better judgement tells me that politicians are self serving and self absorbed. My instinct tells me lawyers crave validation. My hope in humanity tells me the nuclear weapon was, nay, must have been invented for some grander purpose, and my humble knowledge of geography tells me that there must be an island remote enough to fit them all on together.
Now THAT’s news you can use…
