Worthy News?
NOVEMBER 10, 2015
Nell and I jumped on the train to Scotland this morning. Well, I say “jumped” but we all know that’s impossible with a buggy laden down with luggage and a toddler. I proudly got us on but to my great distress, in the process I lost my new Women’s Fitness magazine. I was so looking forward to my little treat! I had brought all the entertainment in the world for Nell but none for me! Anyway, a lovely Virgin employee gave me The Times newspaper from First Class to help ease the pain. Within five minutes of reading I was thoroughly depressed. Every single article had a negative spin. No stories of achievement, wonder or happiness….it was all “you’re going to die young”…… “Immigrants suck”……”Europe sucks”……”Oh and that thing we were all really proud of in 2012….Turns out that sucked too”. What!?
I have realised that over the past year my news reading and watching has dramatically decreased because of Nell. On the one hand this is because she is now at the age where she tells me “I don’t like it mummy” and would much rather watch The Clangers instead. But there is also a second more important reason for my decreased consumption. I remember the day that the BBC decided I needed to see a victim’s family meet their child’s remorseless murderer for the first time live on television. Those news editors decided that at 7:45am in the morning, I needed to witness Evil with my child in the room. That’s when I made the choice to turn off. So it dawned on me today, when I started reading this newspaper that over the years I had desensitised myself to “The News” and it’s negative bias.
Luckily, after a couple of months of the beautiful world of The Clangers, my eyes have been opened. Wouldn’t it be lovely to one day open the newspaper and instead of it highlighting all the badness in the world, to find that it only highlighted the good? I understand that we need both sides of the coin but I really don’t believe that’s what we are getting. Why can’t the Media decide to give us fifty fifty?! Now that is a Newspaper I would want to read and a News Channel I would want to watch. However, until they do, maybe we should all be a little more aware of the negativity we are absorbing by listening to these stories everyday. If you want my opinion, tuning into the beautiful, innocent world of The Clangers now and then is the much, much healthier option!!
Namaste!
Lots of love,
Laura x