Here Is The News

Today I undertook the rare ritual of reading my hometown newspaper, The Chesterton Tribune.  I'm not a big devotee of the small town drama that manifests itself in the form of marijuana posession arrests and town board meetings that get heated.  And of course, each of these articles is written in a way that reminds me of an old woman who is so matter-of-fact that it comes across as condescending.  Throughout my life and meeting the many family friends my mom's side of the family has, I've become pretty accustomed to the modes of gossip.  I'm not a big fan of boiling everything down to lists (life isn't that black and white, despite the titles of every self-help book known to man...("5 Steps To Covering Up Your Infidelity"..."7 Qualities Your Future Employer Will Have That You Should Pretend To Like"..."99 Problems But A B**** Ain't One"), but I have a theory anyhow.

Anyhow, the two main types of busybodies I've met through family-friend interaction are: The Young Guns and The Seasoned Veterans.  The Young Guns are hyper, eager to offer whatever they can to the mission, and are adrenalized by developments in the action.  The Seasoned Veterans are calm, collected, trade information like poker chips with an ever-vigilant stone face, and have experience and reputation enough that they no longer have to try hard to get people interested in what they're saying. 

Everyone knows the Young Gun and their tendencies, so I'll spare further development.  The Seasoned Veterans are really interesting however, and require a bit more investigation.  I've noted that many times the Veterans have already established themselves in the world of information brokerage, have seen it all, and so forth.  So when they ante up and toss in their tidbit (something like "Well I heard that she was seeing another man...3 days a week, all under his nose"), they do it all in a very calm demeanor.  It comes across as if they are more mature, less of gossips than they really are, etc.  I'm having trouble really explaining it, so I've devised a scenario.

A person hears about something that a Young Gun would foam at the mouth over.  But this person maintains their composure, for they are a Seasoned Veteran.  As they calmly deliver the goods, they use skeptical tones and looks on their faces that imply connections that they don't verbally make.  They are sure to refrain from making any statements of opinion, allowing the facial expressions to imply things about the straight facts that are supposedly indisputable.  They are like a lawyer who has no real evidence but tons of fishy circumstances, and allows the jury's imagination to fill in the blanks while he prods the dead case with a stick and hints at which parts of it should be twitching.  They are business-like, official, and just imply skeptically, never state.

If this helps, you see the woman on the right.  She has a face that implies importance and severity.  It's a serious matter, akin to a business deal or secret meeting.  Seasoned Veteran.

Then there's this lady on the left, grinning, eyes wide, trading dirt for the enjoyment of feeling superior.  Young Gun.

I realized now that this was not at all the intent of my post.  Anyhow, I hope I have clearly explained the theory of the Young Guns and Seasoned Vets.  If not, leave a comment and I'll try to explain further.  The point of this post wasn't just to bag on old women my grandma and aunts hang out with, but to point out the condescending implying Seasoned Veterans do...and if you have a feel for what this is like, imagine reading EVERY SINGLE article in my home newspaper that was written in-house, written like a Seasoned Veteran: too experienced to not make a statement, but too "mature" to say gossipy things they really think.

Well, as I thumbed through The Chesterton Tribune from July 11, 2011, I see article after article written like an old woman who has gathered her evidence from peering over the fence into her neighbors' domain...and then on the very back page I discover articles like this:  SYRIANS ATTACK US EMBASSY (which is a loaded headline, implying that Syria attacked us, when in reality it was a group of Syrian citizens protesting), TOUGH LINE: US SUSPENDS MILITARY AID TO PAKISTAN (interesting timing, shortly after catching Osama bin Laden we no longer give them 800 Million dollars), and US RECOGNIZES NEW NATION OF SOUTH SUDAN.  These are all dispersed among more state-wide and town drama stories.  But a bigger issue I have about newspapers is the "News at a Glance" section.  It is 2 inches wide, 2 inches of the 13 inch width of printable margins, and runs from top to bottom, the front and back page only.

But the interesting thing is that most every issue of the newspaper features a News at a Glance that really ought to be called "Pending War at a Glance" or "Deaths at a Glance That We Don't Care About Because John Doe, Who Used to Be the Town's Star Pitcher in '87, Has Been Convicted of Statutory Rape".  The strip has headlines from all over the world: London, New York, Beirut, Mexico City, Kabul, Washington, Tokyo, and others.  News pisses me off.  Teens will get busted for pot, and NATO soldiers will be killed.  Guess which one will get attention?

One time I was given a dramatized audio version of The Bible.  I didn't listen to it, but heard from a friend who did that the stories of the battles in the Bible had battle sound effects in the background of the narration...swords clanging, men yelling, etc.  That's what news has become.  You can't just read it, and find out what HAPPENED.  You find out what happened, and what that HAPPENS TO MEAN for the world through the multicolor shade filter of that news source's political affilitation.

We as Americans have created this beast.  I was reminded the other day about our military actions against Libya.  Reminded.  Why in the world would I forget about something that we don't call a war because it's bad press, but was essentially a war?  Maybe because the country has been wrapped up in wanting Casey Anthony dead because of her daughter.  But that's an entirely different blog post about the justice system and how it operates like a debate team and not a counsel, seeking the victory and humiliation of their opponent rather than justice.  And before the Anthony case, any number of dramatized cases, circumstances, celebrity scandals, and so on occupied our view.  So much so that we dutifully remember the identities of Snooky and the cast of Glee, and know all of the drama and who gets along with who on The View, yet forget that the USA stuck its dirty fingers down the throat of another country to assist them in coughing up whatever it is we want or will want in the future.

This has turned into a rather long post, but the media is so large and frustrating that I have to call it quits for right now or I will exhaust myself and ruin my day by being mad at things I can not change.  My ending thought is that citizens who care about the direction of the country and the world would do well to look past the face value scandal and shock factor and peer into the vacant soul of the country's media.  Media is a business, and as such, business decisions are made to earn money, respect, etc.  Basically no media source can be trusted at face value.  You have to compare what you hear to your inner compass, whatever direction that may face.  I feel discouraged that I even have to say something like that...that people need to think for themselves.  Americans only want their freedom of speech and thought when they've been pissed off.  Unless we change that, we'll find ourselves more and more in a position of losing those rights.  Old brooms and magazines that never get used get thrown out.  Microsoft made a little Wizard thing to help you clear unused desktop icons.  Corporations cull out the unneeded and uneffective job positions in the name of efficiency and profits.  Why will it be any different when the powers that be, and even the people themselves, look and see that the ability to think for ourselves hasn't been getting much time off the shelf?