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Here you will find a record of all things fiction and the thoughts generated through clear lenses. All posts older than 12/16/2013 are works of thirst-quenching fiction you should explore freely, while everything onwards becomes what has struck the bell in my brain and turned into words. Enjoy!

Sunday, February 9, 2014

NEWS (Editorial): Is This Really News? And Random Celebrity had an Affair with the Apocalypse Tomorrow!

That above headline seems like the sort of thing media outlets are writing constantly nowadays. It's hard to tell what is to be considered real news anymore, when my top 3 headlines from what are thought to be reliable news sources (Time, Washington Post, New York Times) are about Flappy Bird, a lady imprisoned for "trolling herself" (read, actually impersonating others and making slanderous/lewd remarks to family members), and a wine that cats can drink.


"Hide yo kids!"

Sure it's a bit humorous, but headlines like this are being written as clickbait, a vile new word, where websites just write whatever will make you go there to get you click, and in addition their spinning the content of the news to make it sound more incredible or interesting than the true story is.
I think it was last week that MSNBC interrupted a former congressman speaking about the NSA to bring "breaking news" of an over-famed teen being an imbecile.

News is being overwritten, and it's all starting to remind me of that old "E!" channel (entertainment news) that used to run 24-7 gossip blips.
Add in some of the just plain false headlines from photoshopped photos passed off as real and we start to need a news channel to review all the other news channels to know what to believe now (And they are Cracked and The Daily Show, most definitely). Even when major media gets railed as fools, they are still getting attention.

Fox & Friends reported that the LAPD were going to purchase $1billion dollars in jetpacks. Their source for this outrageous breaking story? The tabloid paper "Weekly World". Wow. No wonder it sounded so silly.
Between the never-ending battle for ratings and clips views, there's also an escalation of the severity news intoned by news. What FOX headline doesn't end with "... and will destroy America!" at the end. I think they're popping more dolts a day, just to illicit some crazy response, as the channels still masquerade as serious news, but the people are starting to realize the difference.

I know there are many more reliable sources, like (un)surprisingly PBS, and a number of decent news blogs out there, but the majors that get the most coverage are really failing to bring a greater range of domestic stories and international coverage.

We'll see where the trend takes media, however I'll still be here to post what I feel is worthwhile for folks to know.

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