Hear the talk:
We all know there is something wrong with the news. It is not News -- something new -- it is not news -- information we can use to make an intelligent decision. Most news is bad news -- fire, rape, murder, landslides. Something spectacular. You can’t make good video footage, you can’t make spectacular headlines about what is truly “News”
Here is what one black man said should be on the front page of many newspapers. He said that one statistic should be in the forefront of our consciousness: 70 per cent of black children are born to out of wedlock mothers. Seventy per cent -- and before you jump up & down and say -- well, we know about that community -- he also pointed out that one quarter of all white children are born out of wedlock -- or one out of every four white child in America is born out of wedlock.
He gave much more information he felt should be in newspapers. He gave statistics on the percentage of teenagers who leave high school before they graduate, and he talked of the images blacks are shown of blacks on TV -- gangster images, rapper groups, slutty looking women -- all this was interesting -- and all this was news he felt we need to know because it could spur us to action.
More money needs to be poured into schools, into education. We need to understand that what we breed is what we sow. Those who drop out of school and ape the gangsters they see on TV might turn out to be a threat to us. Educate everyone, and educate them well -- to earn a good living, and fewer of them -- poor blacks or poor whites -- will threaten us, our property, our lives.
These are pieces of information -- news -- I need to know. What percentage of high school students drop out of high school before graduation… But currently what is in newspapers & distracts us from real news is: Speaker of the house molests children. Three hundred killed in sectarian violence in Uzbekhistan.
What can I, an average citizen in America, do with such information. Nothing. It is ever recurring -- somebody is always molesting or killing someone else far away -- or some earth shattering disaster has obliterated an entire village.
I am not saying don’t report such events, but emphasize what needs to be emphasized -- news we can use to better our lives, to change the environment, to give more money to educate teenagers, and perhaps less money to incarcerate teenagers.
We have become a stupid nation, surrounded by tons of news, 24 hours a day, and from every source imaginable, and we know nothing worth knowing.
Copyright © 2007 Henry Morgenstein