Bitch 3x Diaries or News Worthy

The Bitch 3X Diaries © 2001
by Marci Baun © 2001

News Worthy

A few weeks ago, a co-worker and I were discussing the state of the news in this country. She is from a country located in eastern Europe. Unlike most democratic and/or socialist countries around the world, the United States' news programs exhibit very little interest in what happens to the rest of the world. Oh, sure, we get a snippet of news here and there when a natural disaster occurs or some such, but the majority of our news revolves around what transpires locally and then nationally.

A few days ago, the US and England bombed Iraq. Of the half-hour news program on television, about three minutes were devoted to the attack. Compared to the five or six minutes (or more) we spent watching another idiot being followed by the highway patrol in a "high-speed chase", that's too little. I've seen almost the entire thirty minutes devoted to one of these chases. What time isn't spent discussing this stupid chase is squandered on teasers about what is coming up next. Yet, here, a major decision was made by our president and one of its allies, and the media glossed over it. (While the Los Angeles Times did devote a portion of the front page to this event the following day, little has been said of it since.) What about the rest of the countries? What were their stances on this raid? And, now what happens to our relationships with them?

I don't know about everyone else, but I want to know any major news, political or otherwise, of other countries. (Israel isn't the only other country besides the US.) If I want to know the situation in India since the earthquake, I either have to dig through the newspaper to find a minute paragraph buried in the A section some where towards the back or turn to the Internet. I find myself doing that more and more of late.

The media doesn't give us news anymore. Maybe it never did, but what we really get is news couched in opinion...their opinion. Snip out a couple of important words, and the story changes. How many times have you read an interview where the reporter used only a portion of a quote in order to slant the interview towards however he wanted the interviewee to be portrayed? Or a newscaster says a word with just the right inflection, and the word suddenly has a completely different definition than what's in the dictionary? And, voilà, the story has changed! It happens all of the time. 

What used to be about informing the public is now about sensationalism. Personally, it makes me sick and it's really sad to see what has become "news worthy".

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Marci Baun is the editor-in-chief of Wild Child Publishing and Freya's Bower. She vowed to upload a Bitch every week, but alas, has found herself behind. She will do her best to catch up, or at least stay on track.