I watch a lot of news. I read a lot of news. Hell, it’s how I make my living…reading the news on TV. Lately though, I’ve noticed something. Much of the news these days has become white noise. You know, that meaningless, constant background noise. At least, that’s how I’m hearing it. It’s like one of those machines you use to help you sleep. Static.
Here’s why. Donald Trump. FOX, CNN, MSNBC and others just talk about the latest Trump scandal. He did this in Helsinki. He did that to pay off a former Playboy model. I’m just not listening anymore. It goes in my head and comes straight out the other side. I’m sure some of this is important. A lot of it just doesn’t matter. It is what it is. Enough people voted for him to get him elected. So be it.
Does it help to beat it in the ground day in, day out? Look, I know they gotta fill time. We fill six hours every morning. It’s hard. The News Beast just wants more. That said, it’s starting to feel like the boy that cried wolf. You just stop listening or caring. Someday, something will happen that needs our attention. Where will we be? I fear we will have stopped listening.
You hit the nail on the head. With the national media it is Trump, Trump, Trump all day long with too little attention paid to anything else of interest happening in the nation or around the world. It is the national malaise. I believe they call it Trump Fatigue. Some suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Whatever it is, I too am tired of it all. I do suspect that the Master of Manipulation himself (aka POTUS) is behind it all – keeping his name in the forefront day and night, 24/7, creating the chaos and the scandals to keep us distracted. But to be honest, will this cause me to vote for his opponent, whoever that should be, in 2020? Probably not. Whatever he is doing for our economy and for world peace, beyond the insults and scandals and undiplomatic diplomacy, the befriending of our enemies and the alienating of our allies, he seems to be doing something right. The economy is growing beyond expectations, jobs are aplenty, and voters are now seriously considering throwing out the long-term dead wood in Congress and favoring term limits (what Trump refers to as cleaning the swamp.) So the treatment for the malaise, as I see it, is to watch only your local news (like FOX 13 Tampa) and avoid newspapers and national media. In another 6 years it will all be over and we can take a deep breath and exhale a great sign of relief. JMHO.
I don’t think you can blame all of the white noise on Trump. Fox 13 was filling 5 or 6 hours of news before Trump. Now there is 6 hours in the morning and another 3 hour in the afternoon. I think that is the problem. If there was 1/2 hour local news and 1/2 hour national news then maybe only the real news would be reported and not white noise. The News Beast needs to go on a diet.
Sandi, you are probably right. Thanks for responding.