I Hate House Fires

 

I hate house fires.... Who doesn't right? Not newsworthy, probably not even blog-worthy. Which leads to my point. Why are house fires considered news?

Consider this... Networks get to broadcast the news for free. This opportunity was afforded because the thought was a democracy should/must have a free press. That free press needs a vehicle to report its finding to the public. And by giving time to networks without cost there wouldn't be any need to commercialize news for profit. This will insure adequate checks and balances, leading to an informed democracy, and an informed democracy is the best democracy.

Noble concept, however somewhere along the way, networks decided to add “ human interest stories” to the news rundowns. The masses subsequently responded favorably. This was the tipping point. Now news is 95% human interest and 5% news. Sure murders, suicides, robberies, abductions, car chases are all terrible, but are they news?

I use house fire as the example because it's the most egregious. A house fire affects one singular family, and that by definition can't be news. There has to be more than a handful of stake-holders for something to be considered newsworthy. Terrible YES. News NO. Yet and still, it's being broadcast as news.

If you think about it... A house fire is equivalent to a house flood. It's leaves the families home uninhabitable, the family destitude, and in dispair. Yet I have never seen a news story about a singular house flooding.

When I moved to Atlanta I wanted to be part of the community, and learn more about my new city, so I subscribed to the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper. I quickly unsubscribed when I “learned” that local High School football passes for front page (above the fold) news in this neck of the woods.

I applaud people like Aaron Sorkin, and HBO who created, developed, and aired a TV show about the NEWS. “Newsroom” was a great TV show, that unfortunately only aired 3 seasons. Sorkin has a deep and profound appetite for truth, and he knows that most of the world has lost it's taste for serious worldly subject matter. It's sad.

He, like I, understand that news is a zero sum game. If murders, and house fires are being reported then more serious matter are not.

The news should be important to our highest selves not our human base. Human interest is good, but just because something is interesting to the public doesn't mean it is in the PUBLIC'S INTEREST.