We wanted to respect news media…
Donald Trump’s attacks on reputable news outlets prompted many of us to double down in support of journalists and journalism, whether we are ultra-progressive lefties or center-left boring, or even center-right level headed republicans. We wanted to argue that there’s a place for responsible, thoughtful news reporting and that when we have it we should defend it at all costs.
Fast forward to Covid-19, March April May. We have been let down badly by all news media outlets, particularly digital news media, but also TV news, social media and broadcast radio.
The red media have been utterly irresponsible in allowing uneducated working people to doubt the veracity of Covid-19 and perhaps even to believe it’s a socialist plot to remove Trump and instate a communist deep state of some kind. The red media’s tacit approval of the #liberate message and its chickenshit inability to criticize the dark forces that sponsored armed militias protesting at state capitol buildings, is revolting.
The blue media is almost equally shameful but for different reasons. It has spewed an endless fear-triggering message to its readers, suggesting they should curl up into fetal position and prepare for the end of the world. Every story has villains — usually Republicans — and we are the victims. Every story calls out wrongdoing but fails to suggest a remedy or offer a counter view. Every story tugs at our hearts and wants us to cry for yet another group of people we can do nothing to help, and whose pain we have done nothing to cause, yet we are supposed to bear the guilt and the shame. Prisoners not released from prison but forced to remain in close quarters with infected inmates. Migrants in camps not allowed to leave and forced to risk death. Homeless people not given their own hotel rooms but left to camp in the streets without masks or gloves. Grocery store workers forced to go to work (so many have lost their jobs and would gladly take the place of a disgruntled supermarket worker, at least for a while). Endless crybaby wailing, no innovation or imagination, just a constant chorus of doom.
Reading the New York Times with a mental filter for incendiary BS, you can’t help but feel disappointed in this formerly illustrious news institution.
We’re better off avoiding all news, for now. I can’t quite do that, but I do read medical journals, research institutions, and analysis outlets, including Medium. No TV. No radio. No newspapers (of course!). Very little digital news. I’ve left Facebook and Instagram. Very little Twitter.
We need a voice that unites us and that calls for the courageous crisis figher in us. The one that gets our nurses, doctors and first responders out of bed and into dangerous work every day. We need to look for ways to help each other and to help our communities get through this. We need to stop listening to the extremists who have the mic, left and right, and instead begin taking practical steps to adjusting who we are and how we will live in a post-Covid America. Banks will still exist, supermarkets will still sell stuff, cars and buses and trucks will move people and goods. Some jobs will never come back. Some new jobs will spring up, as will some new business opportunities. The alt-right loonies will always be there. The useless angry lefties with their whiny voices will still be there. The real stuff will happen in between these two bookends. Small business owners will invent new services to offer. New tech companies will emerge with amazing solutions for life in the new normal.
News outlets will continue to develop new ways to plug into our deepest neural response centers. Headlines designed to trigger fear will find new places to enter our consciousness, and Facebook’s products will continue to get us digitally addicted. We will continue to struggle between taking the bait and resisting. Our digital addiction will continue to prevent our lives from happening, and will continue to fuel useless emotions about celebrities, politicians and athletes —we will expend energy and emotions on people who don’t know us or care about us.
There’s an app for that: go outside with your mask on, talk to people, try to be nice.
