Nightly News: Why do I torture myself?

[DavidAllred]

I am kind of a news junkie, or at least I have been for several years. I like to read my news typically, but every so often I will flip on the television and catch some of it...

So tonight I catch two stories. The first one is about a 17 year old girl in Kurdish occupied Iraq (you know the northern "good" section of the country) who is stoned to death by about 20 men with numerous onlookers doing absolutely nothing. Well, some of them held up their cell phone cameras to capture the images.

Apparently the girl fell in love with a Sunni, which was forbidden by their laws. Out come the stones, and the CNN video pretty much showed everything except the killing blow, and of course they provided the "shot-after" head tramua and blood pool for us.

The follow up story was a man who stuck his 2-month old baby in microwave. Luckily she didn't die, but now the girl will grow up with severe burns all over her body because of this asshole father.

I tell myself that these sorts of things have probably always happened. That this is nothing new. But the nightly news has a way of shoving it all in your face over a steamy plate of potatoes and rice. It's been over two hours now since I watched the program, and I'm currently escaping into a handful of Guiness stouts. But seriously, why do I even bother turning on the news anymore?

Have we grown so used to the violence in the world around us that it doesn't even matter anymore? Why the f--- isn't the whole world rising up and crying for justice? Sometimes I feel like the only person that gives two shits about it.

I think we've all been coaxed into that "I'm nobody's judge" routine. WTF? Since I never stuck either of my two kids in the microwave, I think I have right to sound off. And I certainly don't want to hear that, "O man, that guy is crazy and can't be held accountable" non-sense. Crazy? You think? What gave you that idea? Was it that he set the microwave to defrost? Of course he is crazy. But crazy doesn't equal retarded. He made the damned choice to stick his kid in there, just like all those bastards in Kurdistan -- the ones with the stones and the ones just standing there watching. They made the damn choice...

so I can flip off the tele... but hell, who am I kidding? The violence is not going anywhere.

[Rob on the Job]

And you never hear about the kind-hearted souls who volunteer to spend a few hours with an elderly stranger in a nursing home who is dying without family present.

Those acts of kindness happen every day, everywhere ... but you wouldn't know it because that kind of stuff doesn't bring in the ratings.

[Matt Doc Martin]

I thought this would be about the sad state of anchors. I miss Brokaw and Jennings.

Instead, it is about the sad state of the world and the way News feeds it all to the public.

Yes, we get it. The world blows.

Let's hear of a success in Iraq. A cure for a disease. News that Paris is FINALLY going to jail. (Or getting shivved)

[Citizen V]

NBC Nightly News? and there will only be failure in Iraq,oh wait..that`s already happened.

[Cam63]

And you never hear about the kind-hearted souls who volunteer to spend a few hours with an elderly stranger in a nursing home who is dying without family present.

Those acts of kindness happen every day, everywhere ... but you wouldn't know it because that kind of stuff doesn't bring in the ratings.

That's a good post, Rob.

[Inkpot1965]

Yeah, sometimes I think we're all caught up in some f**ked up social experiment. "Let's feed the masses endless negativity and see how long it takes for all of them to go bonkers". Not long, I'm afraid. But the good is still there if you're willing to look for it. Just makes me appreciate it more. No wonder I like to wallow in nostalgia [books, comics, movies, music].

[Joshua Pantalleresco]

I stopped watching the news a long time ago. I still read it, but I realized that the news when I watched it seemed to intend to depress me. And I realized that when I watched TV I never really thought about the news. I just accepted it.

So I read it now. I can be much more objective and find myself not as easily manipulated. Actually since I've dropped television altogether I find that I think much clearer.

JP

[Darediva]

And you never hear about the kind-hearted souls who volunteer to spend a few hours with an elderly stranger in a nursing home who is dying without family present.

Those acts of kindness happen every day, everywhere ... but you wouldn't know it because that kind of stuff doesn't bring in the ratings.

Having dealt (albeit very briefly) with hospice recently, there is a special place for people who do that. Good observation, Rob.