The Media

If one as a foreigner were to make a value judgment about the quality of life in the United States, it would be difficult. Since the majority of perception about America is made via the media, does that not empower them unfairly in a way that is unhealthy? If media alone has become the visible and audible perception of America to the world, then had they better not rise to the occasion and present a factual, unbiased, and historically significant picture of modern day American life? Is that happening? Can a foreigner by reading a newspaper or a magazine or by watching TV get a realistic depiction of what life is like in the United States? I think not. The majority of reported news these days on both the internet and in print is negative. The majority of television programs for some reason are dark. Just flip through the channels after midnight and see what you find. Other than the relief of animated comedy shows, the majority of programming is bleak, stark, and even frightening. President Bush’s administration has been accused of a campaign of fear and intimidation. Are not the media equally as guilty as a stand alone entity? As much as Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama object to their treatment on televised debates, it seems readily apparent the media is spinning the news however they see fit. The powers at be, the owners of the news corporations just like special interest groups, are spinning the news in their favor. Gone is fair objectivity. Gone is a sense of positive competition. Gone is the spiritual element of good politics. Media still has not graduated from the adolescent mating ritual of reality TV. Is this level where life in the U.S. stops? Did the professional world, academia, and the arts suddenly just disappear? Is it only because the holy dollar of media comes only from that specific age bracket that watches TV? How as the major superpower of the world can we stand around and let media depict us as adolescent, juvenile, irresponsible, and immature? Yes, for one brief instant this ridiculous behavior might sell a product, but what about the rest of our lives? Have we as a country, a socio-economic system regressed to the desperate end of hawking tonic on the street corner to buy a scrap of food and a two bit bath? What is lacking is the soul of religion, because nothing else will and can provide the vision we need to make it through the likes of global warming, the energy crisis, the water shortage, and the ill-bred War in Iraq. If we continue upon the path that we are on, there is nothing in sight at all except extinction, Armageddon? Many Americans believe this is the path we are on, and there seems to be factual evidence it may be true. Is this what we as a country want, mass extinction, or do we want to re-instill moral and ethical values in our society? The only way to accomplish this is through traditional religion, and I don’t mean Jerry Falwell, Jim Baker, and Benny Hinn. History paints a very clear picture of how life is, and for us as a country to systematically abandon Europe’s roots and our own for such selfish Capitalism is an abomination. No wonder people laugh at us. What do we use as our models for civilization? Ignorance? Contempt? Greed? Violence? Are these things really coming from the threat of global terrorism, or are they coming from our own media? When your own product is so ill thought, unaware of its aesthetic, and unconcerned with history then why should it be allowed to be the perception of your entire country to the world?