I wish there were a TV station, a radio station, a newspaper, a magazine, or a website–some form of mass communication–that only reports good news.
Don’t let the bad stuff dominate your news.
I’m getting pretty fedstrated–that’s a new word I just coined combining fed up with frustrated–with bad news. I occasionally make the mistake of watching or reading too much news. Before long, I am feeling irritated, upset, angry, fed up, frustrated–fedstrated.
My wife and I have agreed that we can’t take too much more than 15 minutes of repetitive bad local or national news before fedstration sets in.
I am fedstrated with the “Fourth Estate” (print, electronic, and digital media). As a collective group, it appears to zero in on everything that’s bad about the human condition and relegate the good to the back pages or the cutting room floor—or, in the digital age, the delete file.
This negativity pervades every element of society–politics, religion, education, national security, the economy, health care: You name it, the media will dig up the negative.
Don’t get me wrong; I am a pragmatist. I am a realist. I live in the real world and understand it can be a dangerous place with bad people who do bad things.
I also understand that news reporters must report negative findings as they occur if they are to keep the American public informed.
But I contend that for every bad person doing bad things, there are 10, 20, 30 or more good people doing good things. I want to hear more of their stories.
Journalists today think that if they aren’t reporting bad news, they aren’t real journalists. They are led to believe that good news is fluff, “soft” reporting, cream puff stories only for second-string reporters.
The Fourth Estate perpetuates that position, presenting awards for “best investigative reporting,” and generally the investigation isn’t a positive one. How about some awards for Good News?
I believe that good news needs to be categorized as “hard” news. It is just as critical for people to know about the good their fellow people are doing as it is to know the bad.
I am pragmatic, but I am also an optimist. I want to give people the benefit of the doubt whenever possible, and I believe that the vast, silent majority of people are good and will do the right thing most of the time; it is the small percentage of bad people who steal the headlines.
The silent majority doesn’t seek headlines; therefore, they are content doing good without recognition. However, because of their silence and avoidance of recognition, their stories are not heard nearly enough.
Well, I have good news! In the process of preparing this Friday’s Week-Ender, I discovered some websites that feature only news about people doing good things. If you want to brighten up your Friday, put down that local or national paper, mute the TV news, and take a look on the web for some good news.
For example, on the “Huff Post Good News” (www.huffingtonpost.com/good-news/), you can read about the hitchhiking, homeless man who appeared like an angel to help save the life of a newborn. Or about the unemployed Chicago woman who helped a perfect stranger find the missing wedding ring he’d accidentally dropped into a street saxophone player’s box.
“Happy News” (www.happynews.com) features a video news piece (that appeared on NBC) about an organization that provides hearing aids for kids whose parents normally wouldn’t be able to afford them. The site also has authors who talk about things such as the power of positive momentum; the type of personal and positive traits children need; or the cleansing qualities of forgiveness.
On “Good News Gazette” (www.goodnewsgazette.net), you can find out about how a small Georgia town came to declare a “Random Acts of Kindness Day,” or about the homeless Army veteran in Texas who repaid a small act of kindness by volunteering to help others.
I guess what I’m getting at is that there is a lot of good in the world if you look for it; but you’d never know it by watching the normal news shows or reading newspapers.
I think we all get so wound up in our everyday issues that it’s not easy to stop and recognize good news when we see it. I know I am guilty of this. But when good does occur, it is magnified when the story is shared with others.
So on this Friday, are there any PRB readers with some Good News you want to share with others? Have you seen someone doing good things that deserve sharing? We could start a “Good News Thread” right here on the PRB website and put a stop to all the fedstration.
Randy Gaddo, a retired Marine who also served for 15 years in municipal parks and recreation, is now a full-time photojournalist who lives in Peachtree City, Ga.; he can be reached at (678) 350-8642 or email cwo4usmc@comcast.net.
Related posts:
- The News Blues
- Smiles Are Good Medicine
- Do What’s Good For You
- Guilty By Accusation?
- Being A Good Man
It’s funny that your article would be about what we view. Because last night my wife and I never turned the tube on and didn’t feel like we had missed a thing. Yes the bad, negative has gotten old. Maybe we need to bring back the good, positive old. Yes we care about health, safety, environmental issues, but not people’s personal lives that don’t matter in our own. Thanks!
Great and spot on article. You are right, our media, including sports media focuses on the negative. We all would be better off if we received reporting in context. Report the bad that we need to know and then the 25 good things. Would that not be cool, a 25 to 1 ratio of good to bad news. How much better would we feel? My good thing to report is about a man who makes money officiating soccer. He does high school, adult and sometimes small college games all for pay. For our youth program we use volunteers. Getting officials is sometimes tough. I roped this guy in one Saturday. He has since turned down many paid games to volunteer for our youth soccer program. He loves being out there with the kids and our volunteer coaches. He told me he has never had so much fun. He feels he is giving back to his community and the youth. He is now out there every week for 3-4 games. One other nice story. A 10 year old super soccer player recently scored all 4 goals in a 4-3 win. Everybody was telling him how great he was. He pointed to one of the weakest players and said for everyone to hear, Lauren is why we won. She stole the ball and made a great pass to set up the last goal. This girl smiled from ear to ear. What a great thing for a 10 year old kid to do. Thanks for the article. I am spending the rest of the day focusing on all the great things people do.
Great comments Billy and Bernie, and Billy those are the kind of good news stories that give hope for a brighter tomorrow. I think I’m going to try and focus on good news henceforth in Week-Ender. We can tell America’s Good News one story at a time:-)
Randy, you are so right that we need some good news. Our local radio station does a good news feature every morning at 6:45 and it is a refreshing change for the bad news that seems to permeate our lives.
My story is my Dad. He is in his 50th year of volunteering with the local rescue squad. He is a lifetime member of the Charlottesville Albemarle sqaud and has nearly 20 years with the Northumberland County squad (both in Virginia). Next month he will be 85 and is getting ready to teach an EMT class. As you can imagine after nearly 50 years of teaching, he is now teaching the grandchildren and even great-grandchildren of his original students. My Dad does not do this for the glory or accolades and actaully gets embarrassed if he is publicly recognized for his work, he does it because he wants to help others. Of course the message he gave us, his children, through his actions speaks louder than all the lectures and rules doled out as we were growing up.
Love the warm and fuzzy ideas about good news. My husband won’t even watch the 11 p.m. news. Can’t stand all of the bad news. I like the idea of sharing good news. Let’s go for it in your column! The good story that I have is a pic today from a friend in DC. She took a picture of 3 soldiers in raincoats standing guard of the tomb of the unknown soldier in the cold, wind and rain. The other pic was of the Navy lacrosse team all dressed up in their dress blues saluting a bus of 67 veterans after they met the WWII veterans after their lacrosse game against Notre Dame. Very compelling!
Facebook me and I’ll send you the pics. My Facebook name is Barbara Burkholder.