Throw away your Television

I have been religiously watching news channels especially during prime-time for a while now. And if i assume that my knowledge about the world around me was zero before, then after following news on T.V my knowledge level would actually go negative. I would become so oblivious to the world that i would actually start believing that there is nothing else except what is around me. Despite my exaggeration, this would honestly be an accurate description of the average American viewer who gets his news from T.V, which by the way is a large number.

For example, anyone following the news gets to know about the terrorist attacks taking place in Iraq nearly everyday, they are of course mentioned in the news. However, the focus is always on the Americans, which is expected but not to the extent that you mention a 100 people died but no American casualties and then the news moves on. They all mention Iraqi casualties but never show their story. These people are now allies with the Americans for decades to come and no one seems to show much interest in their suffering, their story. Most of the viewing public is therefore in a way shielded from the harsh realities of war, which doesn't mean showing gory pictures but sharing the story of the soldiers as well as the civilians. It would only help in cementing more support for the war at home, when people see exactly what is happening to the civilians and how Americans are trying to make it better. Only a few newspapers attempt at showing the harsh reality of war.

And like all T.V news, there are always dumb stories being followed, i know one good example from India -- the whole dps video "scandal". However, we Indians are mere amateurs when it comes to American T.V channels. For example the "Runaway Bride" story (see last post for details), for the past week (it goes on and on) or so they have spent hours and hours in going over this story. Many prime time shows open with this as their main story, at a time when there are attacks in Iraq everyday. It begs one to ask why would anyone be more interested in this when the country is at war? Now, i don't mean all the focus should remain on the war, because life has to go on. But, there are better things to cover than wasting hours on irrelevant things, which are not important at all.  I don't always want to know what is going on the in the world from the internet, i like to watch some news on TV too, so far there is only the PBS prime time news and BBC World (again on PBS) which cover the world and relevant stuff. Its therefore no surprise that so many people get their news from a fake news show like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which does a good job at pointing out how the ridiculous the mainstream media is in United States has become.

I don't think its the fault of Americans that people around the world presume them to be ignorant (not an entirely correct presumption either), when their prime news outlets don't really care to give the time of day to things happening around the world. Fox News  has a segment called "Around the world in 80 seconds", the world is relevant for 80 seconds and the stories covered are mostly odd news items. Its not just FOX its every outlet, be CNN, NBC etc. Its actually  is sad to watch CNN since they have an extensive network of correspondents around the world, however they hardly ever utilizes them here. Its not unusual for a national news channel to keep less focus on the world, however, the focus here is too dangerously low. But, then America is no small country, it seems there is always enough going on here that for a lot of people the need to look outside never arises.

Comments

[rhea]

And I was actually planning to start following the news!

As far as the dps scandal is concerned...it was blown so much out of proportion that it still remains somewhere in the minds of people when they hear the name dps in spite of the "STPM" (short term public memory) Anyways we're over most of the damage done....but the situation still remains sad!