THEY JUST DO NOT KNOW HOW TO THINK

“The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” Bertrand Russell

My biggest take away from the evening news challenges and the 24-hour-a-day cable news programs is that the majority of people that they report on and/or interview do not know how to think. Yes, I know this is a sad commentary on the field of journalism, but it seems that journalism as we used to know it is a dead discipline and what has risen up in its place is mostly a toxic and dysfunctional form of propaganda. How can I assert such a statement? Here’s how.

First, the news is no longer what is new, it is what is sensational. What gets attention is whatever is sensational, outside of the normal, the unusual, the dramatic, the horrific, etc. It is true that bad news sells just as it is true that a car wreck on the side of the road will stop traffic. Why? Not because the road is blocked, but because of the gappers—all of the people who slow down to gap at the wreck.