My what's wrong with the world rant

[cheezMcNASTY]

I straight up can't watch it news on tv because it just breaks so many rules behind responsible reporting. And it's all because of the pressures that come with needing to havesomething to report 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I'll use Sandy Hook as an example, since it's the last time I hated humanity enough to tune in to broadcast news. First few hours, fine. We're hearing the facts as they roll in and everything is fresh. All good.

Fast forward another hour and we're hearing Obama's speech. Still relevant. Still worth broadcasting.

Another few hours? Crying moms. Worth mentioning the greef, sure. Maybe tell one story so people can relate from a human interest perspective. But no. They move from one mom, to another, to another, to another. All of them experienced the same thing, but they're filling airspace with pure sensationalism.

Fast forward some more. Now they have apsychologist evaluating all the crying moms to certify that they are, in fact, grieving. What in the honest ****?

and they literally, literally, use these tactics for any story that comes their way. Not to sound like that raving lunatic who ends statements with "...and that's what's wrong with this country!!!" but really. You have a sizeable chunk of people exposing themselves to that garbage on a daily basis. What do you think that does to their mental psyche? It gets better. Each ****ty network is associated with a political party SO critical thinking goes out the window because everyone's telling themselves "at least it's not FOX" or "at least it's not MSNBC" which makes it even worse because it's all being taken for granted.

The news is supposed to be the barest of the bare essentials and it's accepted as that. When in reality, even if they have no ****ing clue what's going on in the world, they will live broadcast it into your home without a second thought.

Now we get to the core of the problem. These people make up a huge chunk of voters.

 

[DarkONI]

Now we get to the core of the problem. These people make up a huge chunk of voters.

What does exactly make you an ideal voter, then? In a democracy everyone reserves the right to vote, and openly share their ideas. Isn't it too convenient to take the worst samples out there, and point fingers stating that they are a fallacy for the whole?

 

[cheezMcNASTY]

What does exactly make you an ideal voter, then? In a democracy everyone reserves the right to vote, and openly share their ideas. Isn't it too convenient to take the worst samples out there, and point fingers stating that they are a fallacy for the whole?

I wasn't talking about the worst-case voter. I'm talking about how unhealthy the system is to the psyche of the individual as a whole, then applying it to the population of voters as a whole. I also have found in my own experience that the average person does not challenge their own beliefs and try to reach conclusions that would benefit everyone.

They don't say "I'm rich, so I want to vote in the direction that makes me pay less taxes to better retain my wealth."
They don't say "I rely on poverty assistance programs, so I'll vote to pump funding into that."
They vote to benefit society as a whole and try to take an objective, secular eye to these issues; not making a mockery of the right to vote in the process.

We have freedom of speech so that people can share their ideas and opinions and evaluate them in public forum. Because of that, I prefer to think of it as the responsibility to listen. Sadly, what I see more often is people speaking as loud as they can and shutting out all feedback.

Example? Sure. When was the last time you discussed politics with people and you actually witnessed one person's logic change the mind of someone else? I have yet to.

 

[DarkONI]

Example? Sure. When was the last time you discussed politics with people and you actually witnessed one person's logic change the mind of someone else? I have yet to.

It happens more often than what you believe. The truth is that people when confronted will refute the fact. Sometimes they are not even aware of that.

 

[Quistrix]

I rely on getting most of my news on the net these days - but even then it can be sensationalised and filled with inaccuracies. The news doesn't seem to be as bad on televisions over here. It's not perfect, but you guys definitely seem to have it worse. Was told about how you guys handled the flight MH130 fiasco. I think it got really bad when CNN used actual model planes to act out the scenario. And that was after going on and on about it incessantly for weeks. Repeating the same information over and over.

I think this scene in Anchorman 2 relates here...

 

[DarkONI]

And that was after going on and on about it incessantly for weeks. Repeating the same information over and over.

That's a typical strategy to shift common focus of the audience towards a specific subject, and which also has a long-term effect on their social activities. From conversations with family, and friends to online discussions-- like this one right now. If you think about it then this method works for them to gain the attention on what they want, for an awful long time.

Perhaps you don't watch TV news, neither do I that much. However, the internet is just an outlet that can give a higher amount of information at a much faster rate to the point that even when some of that information makes its way to your head you will not realize it, just as much it happens with the TV, advertisements or in conversations.

Of course, different people, have different levels of resisting this. Although, in truth, everything affects everyone in some sort of way, and denial is a strong sign of that.

 

[Gikoku]

That's the reality of our society that thrives on sensationalism. Crime, violence, controversy and celebrities sell more than actual information and problems. The worst case I've seen of it in recent memory was the day a member of congress was speaking out against the NSA and was immediately cutoff for a report on Justin Bieber's arrest.

Televised news is a joke, but because of how society works the news stories we get fed by them ends up becoming entertainment for a lot of people to the point where regular information becomes boring to read about. And that's where the problem lies, news is supposed to be news, not entertainment. :/

That's a typical strategy to shift common focus of the audience towards a specific subject, and which also has a long-term effect on their social activities. From conversations with family, and friends to online discussions-- like this one right now. If you think about it then this method works for them to gain the attention on what they want, for an awful long time.

That and they simply just ran out of stuff to report on, stuff that gets ratings anyway. When stations like CNN finally get a hot story that rolls in the ratings they milk it for every ounce they can until it's completely uninteresting. As Queen mentioned, what my country did with the whole Malaysia airlines incident was on par with the 9/11 coverage 13 years ago. CNN dominated their feed with it for 2 months straight with pointless updates that offered nothing for anyone, then when they pulled out the toy airplanes and video game simulators everyone had enough. When your channel lives on sensationalized news how can you expect to survive when you end up with a lack of said content, you end up getting desperate.