Oh Midge

Media Madness

O’Midge,

I know people have always said DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU SEE ON TV, but what about reality tv shows and the news? They are real life, right? Wouldn’t it be against the law for them to say they are real and then not be?

– Oblivious in Oregon

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Dear Oblivious,

Everything you watch on TV, whether it’s a cartoon or the 7 o’clock news, gets paid through advertisements in between the segments of the show. They need people to be fixated on watching their show over another show so they try to make it really interesting. It doesn’t matter if it’s a reality show or the news. Both skew real life to fit into their thirty minute time slot. Whether it’s through editing camera shots to tell a more exciting story or it’s by completely making up “facts” on the news, they are both completely guilty of the offenses. Nothing you see on TV is the actual, true life, truth of the matter.

The same exaggeration that is used in the media on TV, goes for newspaper reports and online news. Journalists were once people grounded in truth and on the search for truth. Sadly today, these morals have given way to competition within the media on which paper or show or website gets the higher audience. If you take one story line that actually happened ie, “House on fire, three children and mother escape,” within minutes of the media “reporting” on this, the story easily becomes, “Mother sets house aflame, saves children, let’s husband burn.” The former story line is going to have more people reading the article, while the true to life story will have far less. The news won’t be chastized, and more papers will use this exaggerated line as just a base for what they’re going to write. It’s like that children’s game, “Telephone”.

It’s a tragedy when the public is refused the opportunity to get pure, honest news and instead is supplied with complete lies and political propoganda to fuel hate, drama, and ultimately, the same media business that created it.