I don't know whether any of you have watched one of the top "News" programmes in your country. If you have, you will have noticed that the "News" they tell you most about is not really worth knowing at all. The world's biggest problems like climate change, the Catholic church scandals, famine, disease, the problems in Syria, and so on, all take a back seat to the problems that the "News" shows think are more important. For example, recently on one of the news shows in Australia had for their top story, "Miley Cyrus' dancing at VMA's causes outrage among some, and admiration among others". What in the name of all that is holy does that have to do with news. I want to know how things are progressing in the fields of science, the cure for cancer and so on. I want to know how the situation is developing in Syria. I DON'T want to be told on national television, that a young woman danced suggestively at an awards show. Neither do I want to be told that Justin Bieber's new album has certain lyrics that have caused outrage within the Christian Bieber Foundation of America! That's not worth being told about on national T.V.
The reason why these "News" shows talk about unimportant things is because they have to compete with other news shows. If one show talks about Bieber, they will be more likely to have higher viewing figures than another show that only talks about Syria or the economy or anything that actually matters. This is a terrible thing, because the people who get into journalism and eventually end up on these "News" shows went into journalism because they were interested in the truth, and giving the truth to people in an unbiased way. But, when they end up on crappy news shows, they have to abandon their love of the truth and the real issues, because the massive corporations in charge of their show wants to have the highest ratings, and therefore more money.
Christopher Hitchens, the great English-American journalist/writer, famously said that the best thing about being a journalist was that you never had to rely on mainstream news media to get your news. He said many brilliant things, but this might just be the best thing he ever said. I've decided I'm going back to University to complete my Bachelor of Arts degree(majoring in Journalism) just so that I'll never have to watch a turgid, saccharine "news" show in order to know what's going on in the world. "Tonight's top story: Miley Cyrus says her new acting role is the hardest thing she's ever done". Never again will I have to sit through these insulting types of news stories..........And, by the looks of it, the one thing Miley Cyrus knows a lot about, is hard things!Ciao.
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