In the News
A look at this morning's mainstream offerings.
And mama said mmmmh, mmmmh
Why don't the newscasters cry
When they read about people who die
At least they could be decent enough
To put just a tear in their eyes
And mama said
It's just make-believe
You can't believe everything you see
So baby, close your eyes to the lullabies
On the news tonight
Songwriters: Jack Hody Johnson.
The current volume of important news stories feels exhausting, and I’m just talking about the domestic stuff, not the insanity we see overseas.
You know things are not going well for the world when Putin and Netanyahu are smiling. They seem to be the main beneficiaries of Trump’s presidency, along with billionaires and would-be fascists. Actually, I’m not sure “would-be” covers it anymore.
The tsunami of local political news means there’s no shortage of things to write about. You focus on one thing; before that has passed, more are crashing down upon you.
Last night, I wondered how 1 News would cover all of these issues: the deputy prime minister's anti-immigrant rhetoric in parliament, the deterioration of the health sector, and so many others.
It's almost to the point where you suspect you’re deliberately being flooded with so much news that it overwhelms your capacity to deal with it.
It turns out they had a brilliant approach to apportioning time and effort across so many important stories—they ignored most of them, pretended they didn’t happen, and provided some comforting wallpaper instead.
For the second night running, they led with Katie Bradford breathlessly enthusing at length about inflation and interest rates, brainstorming about what it might mean without really reaching any conclusion.
I’ve nothing against Ms Bradford; I’m sure she is a lovely human being, and economic forecasting is a very inexact science - just ask Nicola.
After watching Katie’s segment, I felt a curious combination of having being treated like an idiot who needed a basic introduction to economics and remaining uninformed beyond the headline, which made up about one percent of the report.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying that this morning, I will look at a few examples of what is on offer from our mainstream media and how they might help the public make informed voting choices.
We on the left tear our hair out at the decisions our fellow citizens make at the ballot box, seemingly voting against their own interests. Rather than this being a flaw of character, perhaps it’s a case of garbage in, garbage out.
Fundamentally, if someone consumes an all-ZB diet, can we really expect them to make good choices in other areas of their lives?
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