You Get What You Pay For

I support the freedom of the press, and their right to put on the air things that are important to the population of this country, no matter how much those things might upset me. Take for instance NBC's decision to air the photos and videotaped ranting of Cho Seung-Hui, an insane madman who killed more than 30 people to get attention. Cros echoed my feelings when he wrote, "Personally, I think the least we can do is deny him the spotlight to the extent we can, so I'm not watching." But it is the right, and maybe (in this instance) the responsibility of the media to provide access to those images.

And yet...

Katherine Reardon over at Huffpo makes another excellent point when she asks:

"It makes you wonder about normal? When we return to it, what will it look like? Can we ever get back? And if we do, will we find that normal has become bizarre? We can't see the coffins of soldiers coming back from Iraq, but there's no problem seeing the ravings of a murdering maniac repeated on nearly every station, printed in nearly every newspaper. Is that normal?"

Why is it more important to the media to show us the images of the VA massacre but to censor the bodies of the suffering and dying in Iraq, both US troops and Iraqis? Does the answer lie in our politicized media who's pockets are lined with GOP loot? Or does it lie within our American consciousness and the desire to turn our news into an Eli Roth movie where the evil is represented as the "bogeyman"? Something "out there" that is tragic, but can be wrapped up in a simple term like "madman" or "nut"?

Yes, it is the media's responsibility to show us things that are important to our life, but as time has gone by the parental responsibility of the media has melted into an allegiance to the market, and like any child offered tons of candy we greedily eat up the most saccharine images of gore and gossip we can find for the shock value and not enlightenment. Some of it is the media's fault but often the reason lies within ourselves and our desires. Only by demanding more of your news will you every get real journalism, and only be demanding more of your leaders will you ever get real leadership.