I Don’t Need More Tragedy

This has been on my mind a while, so I thought I’d get it out.

People always ask me why I don’t watch the news, or they persuade me to watch the news. So why don’t I watch the news and have no interest in it?

Two reasons.

One: It’s depressing, it’s always about tragedy. Like, a plane crashed in the ocean or forest, there’s a shooting riot overseas, someone got raped in a dark alley, gun violence is still uncontrollable in the USA, someone started a nasty Facebook page about an innocent kid, etc.

I mean, really, let’s think about this. How often does the news give you a positive story? Rarely. When I wake up in the morning, there’s a rare ocassion where I want to turn on the radio, and when that occurs. I want to listen to Q107, not CBC. When I wake up, I want to listen to my music and feel positive about the world, and my life. Listening to the news on the radio or watching it on TV destroys that feeling. It encourages us to fear the world, and we start to spend our lives being worried about when the next tragedy happens, and it happens in our area. Bad things happen, there are bad people out there. But the world isn’t always dangerous, there’ll be times when there’s peace.

Yes, it’s good to be in the know, especially if any of these events are happening near you so you have to watch out. But if it’s always about tragedy, death, etc. it becomes too depressing. It’s just a reminder for us to be afraid of the world. FEAR, that’s the main word here, and it’s what keeps people’s attention towards this.

There are some rare times when there’s a positive story, like no one died in a burning building and the fire was put out, or a certain band has a new album. But other stories that are not about tragedy on the news are mainly just the usual, like chaos in shopping malls close to Christmas for example. How about something entertainment related for once? Speaking of which……

Two: The other reason why I don’t watch the news, is because whenever it comes to the entertainment-related topics, they’re always mainstream focused. For instance on CityNews, they have different categories like sports, entertainment, worldwide, etc. But when it comes to entertainment it’s never about any musicians or celebrites that are of interest to me. Justin Bieber always makes it on there, much to my dismay for example. Same goes for other pop artists that do not interest me. There are some pop artists I like but I like hearing more of the rock & roll. It’s a very rare occurrence when entertainment news I like makes it on TV. The day after my last KISS concert, news came on TV about Gene Simmons & Paul Stanley visiting a hospital in Toronto. They were holding the babies and supporting the Rock & Stroll foundation.

Aside from it almost never being about entertainment I like, sometimes it comes close, but still not right. Like the time Age of Extinction was released; for once I hoped for an interview with Peter Cullen and whoever did the voice of Lockdown. But no, instead it was the couple in the movie. BORING!!!!

The news fails to deliver anything interesting to me.

Now, I’m not saying they need to change it to satisfy me. But it’s simply not my thing to watch and listen to. Again, it’s good to be in the know, but I just get tired of hearing stories about another accident on the highway or news about a celebrity that I loathe or don’t particularly like.

So do me a favor, let me know when something actually interesting to me hits CBC and then I will pay attention.

-Emily