Does it bother you that the news media is not so much about news as it is about profit-motivated entertainment? I'm not talking about the ideological radical right-wing attacks on the "liberal media." I'm talking about news being turned into a business, and in the process ceasing to be news and becoming all about propaganda and entertainment.
Fear and anger motivate people to do things, including watching more scary stuff on television. We are bombarded nearly nonstop with messages of fear and anger by programs claiming to be objectively reporting the news. It seems obvious that reporting the news is at the bottom of their priority list. Think about how political sex scandals dominate the news cycle for days at a time as if nothing else is happening in the world.
So it is with natural disasters like hurricanes. Is it really informative to watch news reporters struggling to keep their balance while standing in flood waters and leaning into hurricane force winds? Are we watching in the hopes of seeing one of these idiots get hammered by flying debris? Is the television news organization sending its reporters into these conditions precisely because they know the public will watch - hoping to witness something horrible on live TV?
Anyway, these thoughts were on my mind when I coerced my family into making this short video spoofing the news media. The video does, briefly, show our experience with hurricane Irene.