Sullen & Eneverated

I really don't watch the news much any more, be it local or national due mostly to the lack of integrity these days and the awful blurring of news and promotion that attempt to slyly shill a commodity to me. I try to get my news from non-TV news sources like newspapers and Internet sites so I can at least stay somewhat in the loop.

Of late though I'm really getting pissed at a certain type of story that continues to make headlines with increasing frequency, and that's school shootings. Every time we show one on TV and go in depth with detailed accounts of victim suffering and the fear and chaos of the entire event all we serve to do is inspire the next one.

The media is preying on the public with these types of stories that identify the shooter and describe them in such detail that anyone watching who is in a remotely similar state or frame of mind can actually become much more encouraged to copy the actions they see because it will give them their chance to be heard, gain notoriety, and a measure of revenge against those people they feel have wronged them.

In essence, they are creating the news and as a society, we are too stupid, too self-absorbed, and too powerless to organize for the common good and denounce these yellow hucksters and ad revenue vampires for their own irresponsibility. There has to be a degree of accountability reserved for every editor, producer, program director, reporter, or news anchor who cover these stories.

It all just makes me sick.

To think that I would rather hear about the latest non-news story about the current celebrity slutlet over this really says something.