What color is your news?

I have noticed over the years that each TV station tells pretty much the same news stories, yet each attracts a different audience.

I call this difference ‘color’.

Some stations color the news to be far darker than it really is and only show the black side of human behavior. Others try to keep things light and insist on a ‘Happy Feature’ in each newscast. Some try to incorporate humor into the news. Some just try to tell it like it is.

I think that what color news you watch tells a lot about how you view the world.

News is supposed to be unbiased and fair, but is definitely influenced by the opinions and viewpoints of those who prepare it for our ingestion. The news that we watch is that report that most closely matches the worldview that we already have. If you are a person that believes that the end of the world is imminent you are going to listen to news reports that support that view.

If you believe that processed ham is going to take over the world, you are always going to pay more attention to news stories that relate to ham and especially processed ham. And you will remember these stories about processed ham and ignore all the hundreds of stories about dying bees because your interest is in ham, not bees.

That is how people work, and how broadcast news works as well.

I think most people of my generation and later harbor an ‘end of the world’ feeling and pay more attention to news stories that have that ‘end of the world’ vibe. If not, then how could Al Gore have gained so much attention with theory and misinformation? *

Some cults tell us about impending doom just to lure us in. After these cults run the course and have no more to gain, then the followers get to drink the kool aid and we begin the cycle again.

So I ask again; What color is your news?

*(Please don’t get off the point here. Even the experts have to say it is still a theory. Every model has at least one unexplained factor. Are temperatures going up? Yes. Is it definitely caused by man? It is likely, but still not proven. It could be a variable in the output of the sun or aliens from outer space trying to make the surface warmer because they want to reduce the sperm count in cattle because they think cattle are the smartest life form on the planet. But I got your attention, didn’t I?)