The Insanity of the 24 Hour News Cycle
For the last 12 hours I’ve been stuck in Chicago O’Hare Airport. I’ve been here since 4am. This unfortunate situation subjects me to some difficult conditions. For one thing, it’s freezing in here. It’s the middle of the summer, but I’ve been cold all day.
Another troubling issue is the contestant stream of CNN reporting pulsing out of the ceiling speakers. The news reports, rather than relaying important fact about notable happenings, in an indifferent fasion, they repeat emotionally incendiary questions, over and over again.
“Should this constitution be changed to prevent children of illegal immigrants from gaining citizenship?”.”XXXX congressman thinks so….”
“why did a beer truck driver go on a rampage and kill his coworkers?” “some say race is a factor”
“should a mosque be built on ground zero?” “some say it disrespects the memory of those killed”
Etc, etc.
I been hearing these questions on repeat for the last 12 hours. CNN isn’t helping me answer the questions. they aren’t helping understand the dynamics of the situation. They just keep arousing emotions with the pictures and the questions. I’ve been forced to tuned it out with sudoku and music.
I imagine the only thing worse than being forced to watch CNN (or any major news network) for more than half an hour would be actually working inside the studio that produces this stream of drama. Imagine being forced to wear a pound of makeup a day. then image repeating those questions at least 20 times in dramatic fashion. And instead of considering the issues personally and formulating questions so you can understand the issue or at least give each issue the proper respect, you reduce every story to, “Is Justin Beiber too young to publish a memior?” “Xxxx doest think so…. Let’s hear him rant and rave about it so that we all get worked up emotionally and do nothing in response”. Repeat for infinity while replacing Justin Beiber with celebrities, criminals, politicians of choice. And replace the question “too young to write a memior?” with any question related to terrorism, sex or race. Terrifying.
