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Part Two: which fears will the news stations play on?
My same friend who told me about the potential asteroid fiasco made the leap about what FOX news covers when he said that they play on the fear for safety (because we’re in danger, whether it be from an asteroid or from terrorists). And that one struck home with me, because all of these years we’ve dealt with President G. W. Bush, he has pushed the idea of attacking a country and taking our rights away via the Patriot Act under a veil of “terrorism,” and these actions are something we have to do (and these are rights we have to lose) in order to feel safe. I mentioned it before, that what frightened me the most was when I heard a President Bush’s advertisement that ended saying the country relies on freedom, faith, families and sacrifice...What do we have to give up for President Bush — and what have we given up for President Bush?
Bush has been playing on this fear of danger from an unseen force to make people feel like they need him. And the thing is, it was insane when I had lunch with a coworker of my husband’s (sorry, I can’t remember her name), and she was explaining to me that while living and working in a town near the Wisconsin border (not even in Chicago) she still felt unsafe because of terrorists. I mean, she literally felt that we physically were not safe. And I’m sorry, but terrorists are probably not going to pick the small town she happens to be in for an attack. So although it’s hard to believe, apparently playing on a fear for safety work withs some of the American people.
And knowing that this has been Bush’s plan all these years, it hammered home my theory on what separates Republicans from Democrats — Republicans are interested in taking away your personal liberties, and Democrats are more interested in taking away your financial liberties (as the generality goes, Democrats want to increase taxes to help pay for the poor, right?). This difference becomes clearer when I see different types of news channels: if Fox News is a more conservative news network, it makes sense that their stories get hyped for forcing people to fear for their own safely. Channels like CNN (on the flip-side) broadcast news about business (more on stock market reports, more business-related stories during trading hours), and on networks like that you more often see people fearing the higher cost of gas prices and energy costs, and talk about the fear of financial problems (relating to how poor people can afford to heat their homes with prices skyrocketing). This financial fear is one grounded in a more liberal viewpoint.
But the funny thing is that all of these news networks do their best to make their viewers afraid of something, instead of just relaying the news objectively. When you think of it that way, it’s frightening that news networks (you know, to get more people to watch, to help their ratings, to keep them in business and make a profit) have to put scare-tactic slants on relaying the news, because news broadcasters have come to believe that instilling fear in people will get them to watch their station just a little while longer, so they can hear some better news to make them feel more at ease again.
Part Three: doing more than telling you the news
On CNN recently, people were on television asking a reporter on their “take” on the drop in the stock market. Not “Do you think this drop will last with the market?”, but they asked the reporter to give insight on the emotional meanings of the stock market drop.
That’s not the reporter’s job. They’re supposed to just tell you the news.
Because people buy and sell stocks and because fluctuations in the stock market will affect the economy, people do want stock market analysts to give insight to where the stock market might go (to help give them insight into what they should do with their portfolio, or even if they should worry about their 401k investments at their job). But a good way for the 24-hour news stations to fill time is to ask reporters to give insight into their opinions of the market (and become analysts, when they’re not). Often reporters will even say they’ve heard things from certain people (not giving their names, of course) that this or that might happen with the stock market, and suddenly their reporting is no longer reporting, but speculation. At that point in the news game this more “in-depth” reporting becomes kind of like a game of telephone, where ‘I heard someone say X, so I’ll relay it (as closely as I can remember) and pass on the “someone told me this” information to you, the viewer, and put it under the guise of news.’
Someone emailed me, saying they assumed I’d write a huge editorial about the Virginia Tech shooting (the deadliest mass shooting in America’s history), and I thought, what could I say? For example, I didn’t feel a need to write about Columbine right after it happened. Something terrible happened and there’s no point in my hashing the details out again, we don’t need that — and the 24-hour drive by media has all of that covered already. There’s not much of a point in me postulating about the horrendous details, and what possessed Cho Seung-Hui to kill people on two separate occasions at this school. The only thing I could think to talk about after the Virginia Tech shootings is the fact that the news networks jumped into this media circus, bringing up details about the legality of purchasing guns (because if Cho Seung-Hui couldn’t get a gun this would never have happened). I even heard rebuttals to restricting gun sales from one news commentator, who said that maybe if another student had a gun, they could have killed Cho Seung-Hui before he killed many more people. And although Cho Seung-Hui was able to legally get guns, I believe the Columbine shooters used their parent’s guns for their attacks. From a CNN article (http://archives.cnn.com/1999/US/12/12/columbine.tapes/index.html), “An employee of Green Mountain Guns called Harris’ house and told his father, “Hey, your clips are in.” Harris’ father said he had not ordered any clips.” And if they investigated further this discrepancy, they may have found out their plan and stopped the Columbine killers from their attack.
Granted, people can say that the parent who owns guns should probably keep their guns under closer lock and key (but why would they when they trust their kids?), but I don’t think anyone in this country is saying that guns should be completely illegal (I mean, who needs to consider the Constitution anymore anyway?). It seems that for those who want to kill, there will always be a way for them to achieve their final goal.
But this is what 24-hour news stations were contemplating immediately after the Virginia Tech shootings. News agencies also then hypothesized about what Cho Seung-Hui’s background was that could have led him to act out with guns, and anything from video games to television (and he didn’t play video games or watch much TV at all), to YouTube, to the decadent lifestyle we’re afforded in America. Suddenly the news stations are making political stands, and right here it’s more obvious than analyzing what fear the news stations are trying to invoke in their viewers.
Though then again, these news stations could be instilling a new kind of fear into America’s hearts, because when any mass-killing hits the news stands like this, it doesn’t matter if you’re a conservative pundit on television or a part of the liberal media, everyone is going to have to get their hands on this story, and like wrapping up a Christmas present, everyone in the media wants to present it to you in just the right way. They’ll use all their bells and whistles to make you see the story just how they want you to see the news.