News, Schmooze

The Sandusky story is a microcosm of the sensationalized "news" we see every day.
It's one reason I don't watch it.

This trend in the media, the one that values sales and profit over truth, integrity, and intelligent reasoning, has contributed too much to the polarization of politics and American opinions. What sells are the Loud and Abrasives. What sells is the bizarre and extreme. What sells is getting the news out FIRST, and because of technology this means instantaneously, which leads to circulation of stories in the national news before fact checking is thorough. So not only sensational news, but also half-truth passes muster if the marketing department thinks the story will sell.

I am a big fan of the Bell Curve, the statistical truth of the bell curve that is. MOST of what exists lives is the middle part of the curve. If we apply that to societal policies, then for Americans to get the most benefit from a political decision, meeting the needs of the majority on the chart should be our political system's GOAL. BUT, because political strategists know what makes the news is loud and extreme that's how they present their wares: candidate, viewpoint, policy.

It's the same as how the news media sell their stories. For example, the Sandusky Sex Scandal. First of all, you don't even think of it as a story about Sandusky, now do you? No. And why? Because everybody knows what Penn State is, but not many could tell you who Jerry Sandusky is. Joe Paterno's name is referred to in this piece of "news" because people know JoePa. His name has been broadly known in college football for decades. This morning, I read a letter on pennstatetrustee.com about just this topic. You should click that there link and give it a read; it's well written, intelligent, and to the point. And all from the keyboard of a Buckeye (if that kind of thing matters to you).

In all honesty, I have to confess that sometimes I jump to conclusions about a story I've read. I repeat it without thinking because it so nicely demonstrates a belief of mine. But there's a difference here: 1. my opinions aren't circulated among the American public as fact and 2. newscasters are supposed to report the facts of an event. When I post a news story I include my opinion because the issue is close to my heart and it's not my intent to spread the news. I'm not getting anything more from posting a story than having a voice and using it.

Plus we commonly forget, when it comes to the news market, that if something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Let me put it this way: if you get an email from Burundi informing you of the $37M you inherited, more than likely when you pay the $28K in international transfer fees what you'll get in return is, well, nothing but your picture on the wall as World's Biggest Idiot. This you already know. So why not extrapolate from there? If a news story is too good, too juicy, too whatever, it's there to play on your extreme emotions. It's there to sell you. And is that what you really want instructing your opinions? Something that's only goal is financial profit?

Oh, but it's so easy to get sucked in, isn't it? I have a few views of my own that if I see a story about any one of them I'm like a frog in the springtime, I can't help but croak about it. Take the whole Chick-fil-a thing. I really don't see this as news because he's one man with one narrow minded opinion. But boy-o-boy does it irk me that he's taking his opinion and spreading it via the American news media. He went public with a private opinion at a time when it greatly benefits far right politicians. But then has the gall to get pissy when his far right opinions, which by definition represent a minute minority of chart space on the old Bell Curve, offend the majority.

Yes, Dan Cathy has every right to voice his opinion. But he doesn't have the right to pass judgment on anyone else's life and call it fact. Judgment as right or wrong is based on fact. I was born in upstate New York. That is a fact and can be judged as a correct and true statement. Upstate New York is cold in the winter. That is an opinion, because although it is fact that coldest temperatures there are in the -30's, it factually gets colder than that in other places. So "cold" is based on someone's prior experience, physical makeup (genetics) and personal preferences.

The larger point is, though, that because this man runs a sizable American corporation, his emotionally charged opinion of the LGBT community is now newsworthy. It's an emotional story. It's an extreme opinion. It sells. Americans become even more polarized by one single man's opinion. Shame on us.

Democracy is all about intelligently addressing differences and in a strong democratic society compromise is of utmost importance so that society at large gets the most benefit out of any situation. The saddest loss of this current trend, in my humble and sometimes flawed opinion, is this: because of current profit mongering in the news media marketplace we can no longer intelligently consider beliefs that contradict our own even though it behooves us all to do so in order for our Republic to survive and thrive.

P.S. And anyway, Dan Cathy, why is homosexuality a bigger sin than passing judgment? Isn't that God's job? Usurper.