The Truth About the Media

Is there anyone else out there like me? By "like me" I mean absolutely, undeniably, hands down, without a doubt sick to death of hearing about coronavirus all the time? It seems if you turn on the news, any news, local or national, within 10 seconds they're rambling on with some update about it. Enough already I say! It would be quite scary to think I'm alone in this feeling. There's just no way everyone else in the country is lapping this up like a puppy dog.

Earlier today I tried finding articles on social media by people so sick of hearing about this virus all the time that they're ready to express they're feelings about it online. To my dismay I found very little. Most everything that appeared in response to my various searches were about how we should take it seriously, and shame those who don't, and Trump is horrible. Amazed that this was the majority of what I found, it didn't take me long to remember that social media qualifies as media as much as the televised news. It's monitored by media affiliates just the same. This got me wondering who these people are that are always trying to control our thoughts, and why are they always so one-sided.

The best way I could think of as to how to understand the media was to imagine myself opening a news studio. I'd have to obtain licenses, and hire journalists and commentators. Most importantly, however, I'd have to produce a product that would appeal to an audience. Who would that audience be? Well, if it was national news I was selling I think it would be fair to conclude that the most profit could be achieved by targeting people who are home the most. Seeing that a large portion of national news involves politics, I would ultimately conclude that political parties that endorse government programs that allow people to profit off tax dollars while staying at home would be favored in my news depictions. I would therefore only hire people who support these parties, and I would ensure they did through the course of interviewing. I would also favor any idea that encourages people to stay home more often. Making people fearful of the outdoors would amount to gold in my pockets, as people at home are more likely to tune into my news programs, rendering my commercial slots more valuable. In a nutshell, that's how it would be done.

I know what you might be thinking right now. What about Fox News? Their underlying message seems to appeal more to the working class. While this is true, with some exceptions, they took advantage of the opportunity to be the only national news channel with such a message. If you tally up all the viewers of CNN and MSNBC you exceed the number of Fox News viewers. Remember, News needs to appeal to an audience. When there's a larger audience available to watch it, news channels can be more diverse. But the bottom line is, the News is not intended as a moral guide, it's a business out for profit. They'll sell whatever their audience is buying.

After considering all this it suddenly became obvious to me why there's so little news about putting coronavirus behind us. Coronavirus is money in the media's pockets. That's likely why you rarely ever hear about deaths from heart disease, cancer, suicide, accidents, and old age. While non-coronavirus related deaths outnumber coronavirus deaths, (including unconfirmed "probables"), by tenfold since the virus made it's way into our lives, you only hear about coronavirus deaths, because most of the other death causes can happen anywhere. Coronavirus is the one they can sell, (along with the common flu, but familiarity with the flu makes it far less scary).

So the next question of course is, is buying their product a good thing? Let's analyze this. There's been roughly 125,000 coronavirus deaths in this country, including unconfirmed probables, throughout the four months it's been around. A large percentage of these have been people in hospitals and nursing homes. That's not to discriminate these folks. I value their lives as much as anyone else. It's only meant to make the point that a very large number of coronavirus deaths have been people who you would have never bumped into at the beach, or at a restaurant, or a grocery store, or at work. This means that people who are tired of being told to lock themselves in their homes like Howard Hughes, and who have likely ventured out more often than the media says they should have probably been responsible for less deaths than lightning strikes. While I'm just guessing with that comparison, I think it's safe to conclude that the coronavirus isn't near as dangerous as the media would like you to think. And while I can appreciate the moral comfort of knowing a few lives have been saved, is it really worth the whole country shutting down? I'm only being honest. It would be nice if a person could be honest without having a million fingers pointed at them. Is it worth it? Is this how we as a human species were instinctively wired to operate? It seems all living organisms have been wired to achieve growth by taking risks, and a lot of them are presumably oblivious to their certain mortality. As a species that's clearly conscious of our ultimate fate, isn't it better to live life to the fullest in the meantime? What happened to living every moment like it's our last? Whatever happened to the home of the brave? No, I think it's more than fair to conclude that the media is not the right organization to get our guidance from. They get rich by keeping us poor. And that's the truth!