Bad Press

My hometown recently experienced flooding along its riverfront. Businesses and homes in a narrow stretch of downtown were affected. I started getting calls at work from business travelers asking me if the roads into town were passable, and if my workplace was underwater. I wondered why so many people had such an overblown conception of the flood's scale. Then I realized that they'd probably heard about the flood on their local news, either directly or secondhand.

An essay published in the Guardian claims that, like anything else, overconsuming news has detrimental effects.

I started suspecting as much when mainstream coverage of the 9/11 attacks turned into a morbid circus. Over a decade later, most major news outlets seem to have abandoned their original mission to keep people informed about events that affect their daily lives. Instead, stories are chosen and broadcast to elicit maximum anxiety, spread propaganda, and increase profits.

Here are a few questions I always keep in mind when consuming any news story:

How is this information relevant to me?

Is this event geographically or morally proximate to me?

What biases are evident in the reporting?

Who is sponsoring this network/newspaper/web site?

In journalism as in most other human enterprises, the old advice rings true: follow the money.