My tiny little rant for the day. I am SO sick and tired of folks bashing the media for featuring negative stories. PEOPLE LET’S BE REAL! If a newspaper ran a story about an Eigth-Grade spelling bee winner, a firefighter who rescued an elderly couple from a home and a former city mayor who is in recovery and saved by Jesus, I venture to say that paper would make minimal sales. However, we live in the age of The National Inquirer and TMZ. If that same newspaper ran a story about an Eigth-Grade spelling bee winner who is accused of sexually harassing his teacher via email, a firefighter who is a pimp on the side to supplement his income, and a politician who is having a four way same sex affair that paper would sell like proverbial hotcakes.
Negativity sells!! And it’s not entirely the media’s fault that it does (although we do tend to fan the fire a bit). No matter how much writers want to feature health fairs, small businesses on the rise and soldiers returning home from war, those stories do not pay the bills. It takes money to run a newspaper, website, or any other form of mass communication. You have to pay for printing, delivery, and most of all the writers to produce the stories. This is business. We sell what you buy. Companies want advertising contracts with news outlets that will actually be seen en masse. Don’t like it? Don’t buy it. Don’t click on those juicy, common, gossip stories when your friends share them on social media outlets. Don’t share them. Don’t waste your time discussing these types of stories during happy hour if you are so disinterested. Don’t look to TMZ and other websites to see if the ‘rumors’ are true. Stick with time-honored, traditional reputable news sources and let the ratings for Dish Nation drop.
Of course we need the positive stories to balance out negativity and tomfoolery. Not everyone goes for those types of stories. But don’t make it seem like the public is constantly attacked with smut by the media and they are sooooo holier than thou. All in favor of ignoring negative press from now until the day you die, raise your hand. That’s what I thought.
My name is Candace and I am a freelance writer who is fed up with being blamed for the public’s inability to admit that they love bullshit just as much as I do.
Thanks for enduring!
