Let the networks know you want news, not authentic fiction...

Contributed By:Dorothy Nevils

Okay. I know it’s the “free press,” that “everybody has the right to know.” I also know that the press does a great service here in our states, a service that folks elsewhere cannot even dream about. I don’t think the press should be silenced. However, I will say this: Given the choice between entertainment and professionalism, every journalist should opt for the latter.

Every full-grown person who heads up a household knows that things made of cloth can be divided into two categories, useful and not. Kids’ clothes, towels, pillow cases, and “other things made of cloth,” get separated. Depending on its worth to the person in whose hands it lands, a blouse may be considered an article of clothing… or a rag.

This is what has happened today. What used to be news a few years back has, in so many cases, turned into “rag-out-loud”! The “news line” has shifted to the wrong side.

Can you remember when news was delivered professionally, as if it were supposed to be important enough for people to actually pay attention to, something to make us respond on a mature level? Remember when two men – always men, and generally two – came into your living room, looked you in the eye, and gave it to you straight? You knew what time to turn the knob… unless it was something completely out of the ordinary. You didn’t need “priming”: They were there at the appointed time, and they brought you up to date.

Now it’s more involved! “Involved” my gym shoe! Cackling and prattling about some nonsense is not involved! It’s childish! It’s immature! It’s nonsense! Why are two – or three – or four well-coifed folks in designer clothes getting paid big bucks to “do the jive live”?

Then there’s the other side, newscasters who do all in their power to horrify you. Not content to share a tragedy with the listeners, they have to “paint the news red!” They contort their faces, stretch their eyes to an unnatural size, and lean in for the kill! Every single detail must be drawn out! The camera has to be pulled in so as not to miss a single detail… a single gash…

Newscasters now have “matching vocabulary” for the horror that the camera person is able to capture. Dramatic is the word of choice! “Watch the dramatic scene!” they hawk, as the camera gets closer, followed by another angle that captures the tragedy even better, all the while cautioning the audience that it “may be too horrifying to watch” as the drama plays out.

What the h__ is drama? I studied “drama” in college. I wrote dramas for the kids’ special services at church. I performed drama. Someone trying to escape a deranged spouse and being mowed down by the satanic lunatic in the family car is NOT drama! It’s murder! It’s horror! It’s not something that grabs you by the eyeball and leaves no mark! Horror begets horror.

So, what can you do? You can go to the network’s page and speak out against it – and tell others to do so, too. Let the networks know you want news, not authentic fiction… which encourages fascination... which desensitizes an audience…

However, if you’re not one to express yourself, you can still object. Find a different channel, and share your feelings with someone else… who’ll tell someone else… who’ll tell someone…

Story Posted:05/27/2017