Fake News?

Yes it has become an overused term. It doesn’t actually mean what the words say, but is part of the concept of if you say something enough it might make it true.

Meanwhile I wonder what it the right term to apply to news that has blatant errors. It is still news if the facts are wrong?

Today I had NPR playing in the background while their hourly hour rambled on. I sort of half listened to the update that 10 people were injured in the landslide that happened in Norway. The newsreader, Louise Schiavone went on to say “it happened on the outskirts of Helsinki.”

WHAT!

So, does Louise not read her copy? Have staff cuts resulted in elimination of fact checkers? Too many millennials or gen x’ers on staff who never took geography or European history? Do I expect too much? It’s not like this is fast breaking news that they have to struggle to stay on top of. Doesn’t this just require rewriting stuff off the AP wire? Would this have happened to Walter Cronkite – no, surely he knew the difference between Oslo and Helsinki but he was closer to the action of WWII.

Oh yes, should you be confused Helsinki is the capital of Finland. Oslo is the capital of Norway, which is where the landslide happened.

Historic Event – NPR

After 40 plus years of being a National Public Radio devotee, I’ve changed! No, I’ve not become a trumpette. I changed my radio presets. Yes, I still use an actual radio, part of the stereo system set-up that includes a turntable and CD player. This event has been in the making for the past couple of years. My favorite radio hosts are retiring, Garrison Keillor left Prairie Home Companion before the scandal, formats on my local stations keep changing from all talk to classical to continually changing broadcast schedules.

And then there is the news. I just can’t listen to a host named Lulu. News topics are bad enough given the trumpf administration. But topics increasingly are LGBQ focused – more than I really want to know about gender issues. And yet another story about race? Years back I noted there was a preponderance of Jewish themed stories; are holocaust stories the only ones of people who suffered? Do other countries cover as many as U.S. media does? I’ve oft heard told that we need to remember so that the history is not repeated. Well it hasn’t help, people chose not to learn – look as the genocide in Rwanda, Sarajevo, Tibet, and on and on.

After race an increasing focus on immigrant stories. I am an immigrant. It is a struggle to adjust to a new culture, there is bias particularly considering the circumstances under which most people leave their homeland they will not be welcomed in their new setting. Historically newcomers generally disliked, mad fund of, their cultural norms slighted. Happened to the Irish, the Dutch, the Poles, Italians, Chinese, and every other group. Even among the colonist Spanish and English powers there was a hierarchy: royalty and peons who were generally disrespected.

I’m exhausted by the news and endless talking heads with all the discussion and what if scenarios. I’ve ceased to be concerned about disadvantaged people, those in search of a gender, complaints about not being treated fairly. I can’t do anything, I can’t solve it. You’re on state assistance, have 6 kids, no partner support, no education, but long manicured nails and corn rows with extensions. Or your family ran across a border illegally, stayed and started a family and now that past caught up with you. Yet another film about drag queens and tran people and their tough role in life?

Does anyone feel responsibility for the decisions they make? Yes life rather rolls us along like jellyfish tossed by the waves onto the beach where they die. But unlike the jellyfish we can try to seize a moment, an opportunity, change the focus and work to change our situation.

So I tuned into an oldies station. It makes me happy! I smile. I dance a little two step. Yes I remember those songs, the ones you can actually sing along to. They have a melody and lyrics, albeit usually about excessively romantic love. Maybe it just takes me back to a different time, memories that usually tune out the bad stuff. I know my perspective has changed as I age. In my career it seemed important to keep up on events; haven’t had a career for over 10 years. It’s important now to be happy, not get stressed, to stay healthy.

What me worry? (Reminds me, I have a collection of old Mad Magazines to sell.)

Where did Good News broadcasters Go?

I’m a long time NPR addict. Used to be NPR and PBS were my primary news sources, but television takes more of an effort – watching as opposed to listening so PBS has fallen off.

This morning Morning Edition was playing in the background when my ear caught a question posed by Noel King to Luipta Nyongo. Noel actually asked “What is it like to be that pretty”? Seriously? In this era of the Me Too movement, of women clamoring for rights in the entertainment industry, of women dealing with a misogynist President that is the question asked?

Do broadcasters get any sort of training on journalism? I can’t even bring myself to refer to King as a journalist. She giggles as she asks the question, giggles with excitement not embarrassment. Oh she gets to talk to a person she claims is one of the most beautiful women in the world, and her interview devolves into a something I attribute to junior high self absorbed girls.

How can women expect to work at an equal level with men when their interviews revolve around being pretty, attractive. What about acting talents, limited roles for women of color, female control over film productions, etc.

King has justified the criticisms from men I heard back in the 1960’s – women can’t do serious work such as men do. Listen instead to Terry Gross’s interview with Andrea Mitchell – but both those women are more in line with my age, not King’s. King needs to evaluate these other women like Mitchell, Gross, Cookie Roberts and really get a grasp on how hard they worked for King to even get a job and she should do more than stereotypical fluff pieces.

NPR – Hello! Have you Forgotten Your Old Members?

Listening to Weekend edition this Sunday morn. Host is Lulu Navarro. Increasingly I feel the stories are not for me. Contemporary Mexican music, LGBT balls, too much rap music, too many stories that so not give me a listening experience I enjoy.

I do long for the old “Prairie Home Companion” broadcasts, the older ones with stories like ‘Gospel Birds’. I love the diversity of newbroadcasters whose names let me know you don’t have to be an urban black & white anchor pair to do news in this country.

I’m sure NPR is consciously trying to attract a younger, more diverse, listener base. NPR, is the strategy working for you? I’m listening less. Moving over to the classical music stations and podcasts. Podcasts are wonderful but there is a danger to picking stories you want to hear. Sort of like choosing to live in neighborhoods of like minded people.

I listen less, I donate less. Do I need to revise my will? Not quite yet…