I can’t help but notice a strange numbness in the American public. I see it locally and I see it in the media, an almost fatigue from hearing a steady stream of bad news. We sure have had a lot of it these days. China is on the rise, U.S. is in decline, Iraq is a mess, our President turned out to be the dumb ass we all hoped he wasn’t (that goes for all Americans) and now he wants to go to war with Iran. The world feels like it’s inching towards the brink with no certainty, no great glorious cause or purpose and now out of nowhere, another natural disaster, possibly caused by climate change, the Southern California fires burns across the major media. It’s enough to send anyone to the loony bin.
There has been a serious decline in the quality of the American machine. Even our celebrities, which themselves are of a poorer quality than in past years, are breaking down under the obsessive tabloid frenzy at which their lives are being shoveled in our faces. The media is, these days, more worried about ratings than it is about being journalism to such a degree that they’re desperate for anything to take the place of Iraq and the truth about America’s decline.
This time it’s the fires, a true and serious disaster, being crammed down our throats. National, and especially local media, flash images of the fire every chance they get. Local L.A. news channels display a montage of fire scenes spliced with images of the “hard-hitting†channel whatever news team in action. They even gave it clever titles like “California Burning†and “Firestormâ€. In effect, these guys are selling the integrity of their news service by exploiting a presently active tragedy. How ironic.
I’d like to mention that the people affected by the fires have my deepest sympathies. I live in Southern California and fire devastation is a seemingly yearly tragedy. Every year the media exploits it, and each year it seems more and more sensational. The stories run on rumor and hearsay and repeat the same footage over and over and over again until we’re all sick of being sick to our stomachs.
The whole experience has me feeling numb, and I don’t like feeling indifferent about lost life and the destruction of people’s lives. I further feel conflicted that the media is telling me that I should shaken by the fires and all the while the violence and destruction in Iraq, the effects of American Hyper-Capitalism on the third world, the genocide in Darfur, the AIDS crisis in Africa and the poverty, violence and economic decline that occurs in our own country is of a lesser priority.
In the end the media in general is just a magnifying glass and where they place it and why is at the mercy of the billionaires and sensational, profit driven managers. I said it before and I’ll say it again. Broadcast media is just another television show.