Freak Out Friday: The News

Welcome back my friends to another edition of Freak Out Friday, where I go on a rant about whatever is on my mind. Last week I decided to skip a week with it being the holiday week, but this week I am back with something new on the mind. Over the past few weeks you probably have put on the news and saw something about the Ferguson shooting or you probably saw people protesting in some major city across the country. If you haven’t I think we have a bigger issue at hand. Before you think “here we go, he is going to give his opinion on the shooting and the outcome of the grand jury” relax I am not. That is another bag of nuts that I do not care to open. Besides if you have been on any social media outlet I am sure you have already read enough opinions and race bashing coming from both sides.Instead I am talking about the news, who is to blame for 90 percent of this snowballing out of control.

Every night I put on the news channel and it is filled with negativity. You have your murders, your rapist, burglars, and tax evaders. My problem is why is so hard for the news to show some positive news. Am I the only person out there that knows they are only showing you just enough of the story to make you angry or sad so you want to see more of the story? They bring race into incidents when it doesn’t need to be brought up. Theybring up backgrounds of the person that has no effect on the story at hand, and why do they always interview the dumbest person they can find on the scene? My biggest problem is the news is not held accountable for their actions. They are pot stirrers. Think about this for one second, if every time you turn on the news you saw an Asian man blowing up a building wouldn’t you eventually stereotype all Asian people as bad people. The news is the sole reason for stereotypes in our country. I have no clue what is going to happen in my city today but if I was a betting man I am pretty sure I could tell you what will be on the news tonight. Someone will be murdered. They will talk about the protests that are happening in our city as well as the ones around the country. They will bring up president Obama for some reason which most of us could care less about and they will talk about the Steelers as if they are the most important thing going on. If there is a chance of something good happening today it will get about 20 seconds (if that) of air time and be placed in a section of the news where most people have already switched that channel.

I understand how the news works, they are called or given a story and they have a limited time to get the facts and get on the news. What I don’t understand is why would you put something on the air without all the facts? How many times have we seen a scenario like this, a person is murdered. Now they know little facts at this point, but want to get the news out there that someone was murdered. So that is all you are told, little facts are released but we know there was murder. The next day you find out that the person was murdered because he had a weapon and was attacking another person. Do you see a problem here? From day 1 to day 2 you have let people already form an opinion on what happened and let’s face it we live in a world where everyone thinks their opinion matters. This can cause so many problems it’s not even funny. If I went to my boss with half my work done and then went back the next day and said “here some information I just found out that will change everything I gave you yesterday”, I am guessing I would be looking for a new job.

True story here. Last month my cousin and I did a 24 hour run for Children’s Hospital. Someone gave us the idea to let the news know and see if they would at least show it to spread the word or at least show it as something positive in our community. I used Twitter and Facebook as a way to attempt to contact the news and had zero responses from them. A friend of ours knows one of the news anchors and reached out to him. He had my friend email him all the details and told him they would try to stop by. No one ever came. When my friend asked why this is the answer he was given. He was told to tell us next year we should choose a child to donate the money too instead of the hospital because people like to hear that than just giving it to the hospital. I guess helping more than one person just wasn’t news worthy. I bet if I would of called and told them someone robbed us for all the money they would of came running. It is a real shame when all you want to show is the negative of the world. I know bad things happen in the world and we all need to know, but I find it hard to believe that no good is happening out there. During the riots all they showed was the people looting and setting fires to the cars. Very little was shown about the citizens who stood in front of shops and stopped some of the looters. It was brought up for a quick second and then you didn’t hear about it again. I didn’t even know the whole story until I read it on Facebook days later. CNN meanwhile had live coverage the whole time and only showed it for a brief moment. I know we live in a world where violence is what gets the people going. People love to see violence and they want to see more of it. All I ask is let’s keep if for the movies and less in the news. Some stories that make the news aren’t really even news worthy, but since it shows something bad it makes it on. Show more of the good and maybe we would have less crime and less stereotypes that cause so many problems.

What are your thoughts on the news and effect it has on our society?



*everything written in this article is based on my opinion!