Louisa Simmonds

The misrepresentation of the news is seriously pissing me off at the moment.

Grumpy Cat (Photo credit: Scott Beale)

You can call me Middle-Aged Grumpy Cat if you want, because if the shoe fits, that’s fine with me.

But does the news seem more depressing these days or is it just that with social media it’s in our face all the fucking time?

It’s probably just ANOTHER sign of age that I even care, but one of the few great bits about getting older is being allowed an intolerance to JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING. I also get to mount my soapbox now and again.

Well, all the time.

I’m sure there was a time when I used to get up in the morning and be excited about reading the newspaper. These days, my enjoyment of what was once a relaxing pastime is clouded by fear of what terrible atrocity I’m going to read about next.

I firmly believe that one of the reasons behind the increase in depression in young people these days is the link to them having too much awareness?

OF COURSE WE NEED TO BE INFORMED, but whenever I surf the net these days, the news is always so terrible. And Monday mornings are bad enough.

What’s worse is that I feel helpless to do anything about these awful things. So I did share a post about the plight of the Nigerian schoolgirls this morning, but what’s that really going to do to help them other than increase awareness or appease my social conscience?

In the last few months we’ve seen the loss of a plane, a ferry of children and two hundred school girls. We’ve experienced sink holes, flooding and mud slides and we now know for certain that kids all over the world have been sexually abused without anyone lifting a finger for decades.

Yet the media decide what they want us to know, even if it’s just about some wealthy tosser getting himself involved in a street scuffle. 

I am appalled at how much I found myself sucked into the death of Peaches Geldof recently, as well as other celebrities who have died from drug use. THIS, WHEN INNOCENT PEOPLE ARE THE INNOCENT VICTIMS OF WAR AND NATURAL DISASTER. But that’s what the media wants us to invest in – celebrities get views.

But morally-speaking, should a minor celebrity’s death really take precedence over the kidnap of two hundred innocent schoolchildren?

Don’t we run the risk of becoming blasé in our reaction and passive about action?

Remember in the good old days when the bad news was tempered by good news stories, occasionally? Remember the stories about talking dogs and women who played spoons to make music?

I want to read more about survivors and the positive effects of scientific research, or newly implemented laws that have come about because people got behind them.

A miracle or two wouldn’t go amiss, either.

I don’t want to stick my head in the sand but I want some balance to the news. I’ll say it again – I don’t give a fuck about Packer in a street brawl.

“This looks like some good sand in which to bury my head” (Photo credit: quinn.anya)

I was at a meeting about Kids on Speed, a series shown on the ABC about medicating kids with ADHD, recently. Several groups of parents and professionals were there to challenge the producer about his responsibility towards the choice of the sensationalist title for the series. He admitted that if the series had been called something more banal like “What IS ADHD”, for example, the network wouldn’t have drawn the necessary viewing figures.

To my mind, that is clear-cut misrepresentation? And worst of all, it’s misrepresentation that plays with people’s lives.

Why do the media get to play God? And does anyone give a fuck about Packer’s street brawl? 

#misrepresentation #newspapers #Humor #themedia #JamesPacker #news #MentalHealth