Stop Blaming The Media

Here is a list of four things I’ve been thinking about concerning the fashionable blaming of the media.

1. I don’t blame the media for society’s problems. The stations I watch report the news. Is that news more dramatic or eye catching than it needs to be in order to generate views? Sure. They could choose to report more heartwarming stories instead of covering police brutality, racism, murders, kidnappings, climate change and drownings. They could ignore all the trash and actual insane things the president says and they could stop talking about real problems or showing the world on fire. Would that be nice? Sure. But that doesn’t mean what the news reports is not real or based on facts. Therefore, if I want to see what is factually happening in the country, or world, I watch CBS, ABC or NBC. I check music sites for music and Reuters, AP, USA Today and other middle-of-the-road sites for news throughout the day. I check out NPR for stories and I go to other sites for other interests. It’s not hard to find reality if you live in it.

2. 24 hour news and the internet have created caves for people on either end of the bandwagon to run and hide in with identical others. That is true. But a rational person shouldn’t lump “the media” together in one basket and set it all on fire or simply stop watching the news (or even worse, call it “fake”). They should find reliable sources of factual information and get their information from those places. Which, I believe, many people still do.