Got a handle on your emotions these days? As you read, watch, or listen to the news, you’re likely to cycle through disgust, horror, confusion, and despair. But enough politics. Suppose you read enough science fiction, as I do. In that case, you realize that the dystopian and futuristic scribblings are actually rather good escape reading.
What’s going on reminds me of the days when the Know Nothing Party was a reality. Ah, the good old days of Yellow Journalism. Hearst and Pulitzer competed to produce newspapers as full as possible with tragedies, crime sensationalism, truly racist rants, and scandals. They did this without even the modest controls we have today. The sky was the limit, and there was at least one very popular delusion about people on Mars.
I can’t help but wonder if some of today’s editorial boards sit down over coffee with ancient yellowed copies of the old scandal sheets. They admire the sheer gall of those late 19th-century publishers. Perhaps they scribble memos to the newsroom on possible features. “Hey, guys, more rants on the idiocy of giving women the vote, the inferiority of the working classes, and racial inferiority.”
What was good for our great-grandparents is good again. It’s hard to beat the old masters at this game.
It’s no wonder many of us just can’t muster interest in the news; our most positive emotion is bemusement.
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I am withyou there!
I’m deeply angry. When I look at the news I immediately react, “Oh GF yourselves.” All of them — media, politicians, citizens. I’ve written a post or two about this and deleted them all because who really cares what I think? I don’t even care what I think or, rather, maybe, I’d rather stop thinking (about this stuff). 🙂
Surprisingly, though, when I recall my history of the Hearst and Pulitzer eras, it was even worse. I only half-jokingly suggest that places like Fox are taking tips from the old masters.
Stephen Crane called the newspaper the “wisdom of the age.”
I wonder if he was reading any of the New York papers, like the old Daily News?
He wrote for these, Syracuse Daily Standard and the New York Tribune. I always thought he meant that the newspapers reflected the age in which they were published more than did fiction or anything else, but I don’t really know. He had a “thing” about honesty in writing. I read some of his newspaper pieces but I don’t remember them.
Do you remember those days when the last story on the news would be something heartwarming and happy?
Yes, now it’s something only minimally depressing.