A Reflection on The News

October 13, 2017

  

What, exactly, is “the news”? For me, it used to be something that I heard snatches of on the radio, or sat down to watch at 6 o’clock or maybe 11 p.m. if I stayed up that late.  If I thought about it, I felt proud to live in a country with a free press, where journalists worked to uncover and reveal “the truth” about events in our lives.  I read the morning  newspaper daily and worked what I could of the crossword puzzle.  I was informed, but not excessively so.  Lately “the news” has felt overwhelming, and I’m feeling a creeping anxiety that I know is not healthy.  I’ve tried my favorite way of sorting out my feelings and thoughts—journaling, but I still struggle.

Last Friday in our writing class, a classmate read an essay she had written.  It expressed well what I had been trying to uncover and said what I want to say.  I came home and started rewriting what she had said, using my words to make it mine, adding a bit and subtracting a minor detail or two that did not fit me—she uses electronics and reads more newspapers than I do..  She has given me permission to publish our reflections on my blog page in the hopes that we can start a conversation with others on this subject.

In recent years the pace of the news has been building up, until last year when I become more acutely aware of nearly continuous and repetitive news coverage—often flashing on screen as “BREAKING NEWS…”  I began to see more and more stories posted and reposted by like-minded friends on Facebook.  Most of the posts were things I agreed with, although I occasionally talked back angrily to the post on the screen that represented a political opinion different from mine.  I felt proud and hopeful that a well-educated woman with excellent credentials and a desire to work with all people was running for our highest political office.  I didn’t agree with everything she said, especially when she called some people who didn’t support her “deplorables,” but we all make mistakes, right?  No one is perfect.  I was also proud of many other women who were running for offices in their states.  I didn’t always agree with everything they said, but mostly I listened and found that for the most part we shared common goals.

As the presidential race of 2016 progressed I began to check the news on my tablet and on the computer.  This was new behavior and I alternately cheered my candidate and groaned as a man I didn’t support positioned himself to be her opponent.  He seemed to be getting an enormous amount of negative attention.  His name showed up everywhere.  Cameras followed his every move.  Journalists seized on the foolish things he said and seemed to repeat them endlessly.  At first, he seemed like a joke, and it was entertaining to read about his gaffs; about all the times he misspoke.  But I soon became uncomfortable with the way he and his activities seemed to dominate the news.  The newscasters no longer seemed to be talking about policies. He made daily combative comments on Twitter, a form of social media that I had dismissed as something the younger people used for quick messages to friends, or a tidbit of  gossip—the way my friends and I, in times past, used snail mail or passed notes to each other in school.  If some important issue was brought up, his tweets seemed to ricochet all over what was being reported, and the reports became about him, not about the issue.  

My friend, who originally shared this piece told me she began to worry as she recalled something her Dad once said:  “Get out there and make an impression on people.  It doesn’t matter if it is a good impression or a bad one.  If people remember you, you will end up having influence over them.” 

I began reading everything that came across my Facebook feed—booing and shaking my head at the inane things I was hearing.  I also read bits and pieces from the New York Times and other newspapers, though not a lot.  My eyesight makes it difficult to read newspapers anymore.  I listened to PBS, ABC, CBS, and MSNBC, and some Fox News and CNN.  I began to be drawn to the evening news shows where an anchor would flesh out the day’s stories along with knowledgeable commentators.  At first it was enjoyable and refreshing to watch smart, reasonable people analyze what was happening.

But this was all happening to the drumbeat of “breaking news” and somewhere along the way I felt like “the spin was drawing me into a media rip-tide”.  I was confused and perplexed.  Had my desire to stay informed become an addiction?  Was the news becoming toxic?  Were my senses being dulled by daily assaults on my values and sense of decency?  When is enough, enough?

When reporters uncovered a plot by a foreign government to manipulate social media to further polarize people in our country I realized I was witnessing a new way to conduct warfare that had nothing to do with guns.

The opinion writer Peter Wehner writes:  “Objective reality exists, truth matters, and we have to pursue them with purpose and without fear.”  Well and good, but it is getting harder, it seems, to discern objective reality.  Wehner also reports that people have a tendency to attach to news that confirms to what they already believe.  He cites a physiological response where a “feel-good” chemical, dopamine, is released every time we agree with others.  I thought about those I know who warn me against paying attention to acquaintances with conservative beliefs.  I admit to feeling uneasy about some of their conservative viewpoints.  Conversations with more liberal friends are more reassuring.  But when I listen to people with opposing views, I sometimes wonder if all of us are paying too much attention to the news too narrowly.  I wonder if I pounce on the opposing sides’ mistakes too eagerly.  I suspect I am somehow complicit as I sit in my comfortable home in my comfortable neighborhood, and I ask myself what is my purpose in these last years of my life?  How can I make this world a better place?

Are there ways to stand at the periphery to get a clearer look at what is happening in our country?  How do I embrace my beliefs more firmly and find a way to act on them?  Stay tuned.  My questions, like the news aren’t in any danger of diminishing.  I will undoubtedly keep reading and listening, though I’ve cut done my time doing so.  I hope I will do this calmly, looking for signs that signal strength and courage in a democracy that rises to meet the challenges, political and natural, that the media continue to reveal.