I just don't understand it.
<flame on>
Why is the evening news (whether it's a major network 6 o'clock broadcast or a local 5 pm broadcast) so damn depressing? If I wasn't depressed enough before I sure as hell would be now.
<flame off>
Just about every damn day there is piece in the news about a homeless family or a baby being molested (and I don't think this is specific to my local market). The national news is really only the news that affects/involves Americans directly. There may be turmoil in a western European nation, or economic disaster in South America but we don't hear about in the twenty minutes that Peter Jennings gives us (counting the ten minutes lost to commercials).
I say all this because I have to contrast it to my experience watching Italian, French and British (BBC) news. I've got to feel that they are better. Not necessarily more balanced but their news broadcasts seem to strike a better balance between economic, national, and international news. I may feel enraged over economic news, happy over economic news or frustrated over international news but I don't always leave the news depressed as I do with the US product.
There seems to be a perception that the only thing that we are interested in is blood, corruption, and destruction. I, for one, resent that. So I've given up watching the news (other than occasional late night broadcasts of the BBC) and now I get my news online or in a newspaper.
Am I alone in my disgust?
Posted by artandscience at February 16, 2004 04:53 PM