NEWS-FED HABIT
Sunday, January 24, 2021 - daily column #6647
While I believe it is safe to assume that we are not likely to be crushed by an asteroid or overwhelmed by locust hordes anytime soon, pandemic politics, strong-man regimes, environmental alarmists, and palpable mental-health concerns are easily spun as an impending collective Armageddon.
Call me an Armageddon-denier.
Just the same, I’m feeling on high alert about some things.
Alarms have been sounded, but I fear too many have either ignored, or we’ve grown numb to their noise. Ugly to watch. History-making events, no longer time-delayed. If someone famous, powerful, or notorious sneezes the wrong way, we get some form of media notification popping up on devices or crawling across the bottom of screens as if it is as momentous as a moon-landing. Actually, I doubt a moon landing would cause much stir …
When someone notorious (often, their Andy Warhol ‘famous for 15 min.’ types) dies, quits their job, starts a war, or signs a deal – we are immediately blanket/blitzed by bits and bytes.
Cozy under our duvets, assuming we are well and sufficiently informed …
Changing channels from right to left doesn’t offer certainty; that only accentuates how ludicrous spin gets and how vacant the middle has become. I don’t recall a more pressing time for vigilance to pursue exceptional quality information and perspective – and consequential for skepticism of NEWS fed us by governments, media, political actors and activists.
I prefer my facts served on a different plate from opinion and hyperbole. And choose to formulate my views based on reality instead of loudest or most powerful/influential voices …
We’ve been on news-binge overload lately; for some, that is just daily newspapers and their 6PM news, but for me, it feels like we are getting it in quadrophonic – so much info/junk/news enters my in-box daily by necessity and because I’m a news-junkie.
I’ve tried withdrawal.
I’ve tried to quit cold-turkey.
But I don’t want to …
I’m not addicted to media, but I’m addicted to KNOWING what is going on in the world; not minutiae on every subject, but a sense of being in touch with credible current qualitative news on significant things that matter, and some less significant ones that matter deeply to me.
Part of having the right to speak out in our society, in my view, is the requirement to listen. Strong mindedness and opinions are essential in debate and public discourse, but only if it’s well informed, accurately informed, and well-intentioned, right?
Maybe we’ve had 5-year Trump-overload that would defy anything Pinocchio imagined, and adding the pandemic fears and facts doesn’t help – but seriously, the Governor-General of Canada is forced to resign because of her reign of terror with those who worked for an around her came to light? It is sad and embarrassing for all Canadians that a well-intentioned government appointed a woman-star astronaut to that vice-regal post – a position previously occupied by so many great Canadians while ignoring a reputation that normal vetting revealed, but which was ignored. Shame on them. Shame on her. Let’s do better next time!
I heard jokingly, some suggesting Prince Harry would be right. No, thank you.
I’ve heard, not jokingly, that the next Governor-General should be a first-nations person, a Canadian of indigenous descent; I support that notion, but I don’t want it to be tokenism. While it might be a great reward to a statesman, like recently retired Senator Murray Sinclair, I would hope consideration be given to someone younger, representing the current aspirations of all indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians rather than a gracious reward for past service. I’ve also heard and read notions of having former GG David Johnston brought back on an interim basis. While he did a great job, he’s off doing other things now, and it’s time to set a new tone.
I wonder what it will take to energize Canadians of all stripes, races, histories and politics to be the Queen’s new representative in Canada. And, another opportune time for anti-monarchists to lobby for dismantling legacy British ties and constitutional connection to that island that once ruled us.
Has the whole world gone a bit nuts?
The hype and noise grab our attention, but too often lately, I’ve been worried about what is not reported, not seen in the light of scrutiny. I’m reminded each time I see the clip of the leader of the free world saying the pandemic impact in his country would be contained to one death when now it has passed 400,000. I’m not fussed about a de-elected fool but very concerned about self-serving media and political machinery that pumps out misinformation at high volume to drown out truth, reason, and civil debate.
In a world that – in case you had not noticed – becomes more free and democratic every decade, free speech doesn’t always mean truth. Or consensus.
Everyone can speak, but we need to be careful about what we believe and carefully discern who we trust to be looking out for our best interests.
We all want to make well-informed decisions because we know from experience, going with our gut-based on false information rarely works out well …
The world isn’t really suffering tectonic shifts in real-time.