That Sinking Feeling

What is it with network television news that it feels the need to inundate us with endless reporting on about certain stories while ignoring others completely?

This past few days we have seen the story of a sinkhole in Central Florida and the tragic death of a man who was asleep when his bedroom collapsed under him sending him 30 feet into the Earth.

We then saw a machine demolishing the house and saw interviews with the distraught family and horrified neighbors, some of whom had been evacuated from their endangered homes.

There is no question that this story is sad.  A man has died in a sudden and terrible way and his family has not only lost him but their ancestral home and possessions at the same time.

But the question is why this story, among the hundreds of other tragedies occurring throughout the nation and the world, deserves so much airtime and so much coverage.  What happened to The Sudan and Afghanistan and AIDS and the Cartel beheadings? 

We seem to lurch from horror to horror...school shooting massacres, rape trials, internet scams, cannibal cops,...each one more stunning than the next.  News gathering has become entertainment and, because of that, the content of our "news" stations has become similar to that of our multiplexes.  We get almost nothing but violence and human suffering, occasionally sprinkled with a bit of real news (Fiscal Cliff, Norovirus, Sequestration, etc...) which is often packaged in the most sensational of ways.

One reason for this, and not a new idea by any measure, is that we, as a population, are so entrenched in our own pain and suffering that we seek refuge in the misery of others.

Misery may love company but the pain of someone else tends to divert our thinking, if only for a moment, and give us a respite from the daily pressure and frustration of our own lives.

Someone losing their house to foreclosure provides us with the solace in knowing that we still have ours while, at the same time, giving us some small comfort because we see that we are not the only ones.

Someone dying in a sudden way gives us pause to realize that life is precarious, short and precious but lets us avoid our own fears of death by focusing on someone else's fragile existence.

And the unfortunate reality of television news packaging is that, a) we are distracted by all of the carnage of daily life so we don't hold those responsible for most of it accountable and, b) even more insidiously, the carnage brings more "eyeballs" and, hence, better ratings and, thus, more ad revenue for the multi-nationals that control the mass media.

Sex and violence are effective marketing tools and so we see them constantly in order to sell more cars and beer and aging cream.  Some of the biggest box office successes of recent decades have involved either war or murder or both.  Some of the biggest ratings successes on the "news" of the recent past have involved either war or murder or both.  See the parallel?

The only difference seems to be in the merchandising that accompanies the promotion.

There may be Star Wars and Transformers mugs and tee shirts but the minute we see Sandy Hook collectible glasses and Sinkhole candy bars then we'll know how much the news has merged with Hollywood and what we can look forward to.

"Get 'em while they last folks...Massacre Miniatures.  As seen on...TV!"