All the News That's Fit to Keep You Ignorant

I just had a conversation (granted a social media conversation) about the local news. In short, there are some real issues going on in this world and real issues that are going on in this country. The local news, instead of sharing a story about the F.B.I. and Verizon, Michelle Obama's confronting a heckler or the war in Syria's progress (yes, I had the www.nytimes.com site open while typing this post out), ran with the decision to change the coach of the Denver Nuggets as their only posted article of the day.

That's right, their only posted article of the day, so far.

Issues of personal, national and global interest are happening in this world and Denver's NBC affiliate is posting about the coach of a game. Issues that have far reaching effects on civil liberties, privacy and the right to be free in what we say and do are being debated on the national stage and +9NEWS' one post for the day (thus far) is about a basketball coach.

While some of their Google+ followers called me out for my indictment of what stories (or in this case, story) was shared to social media, I was reminded of an old quote about religion being the opiate of the masses. An updated version of this quote is given that "In America, sports are the opiate of the masses." That is to say, we keep the people mollified so they're not actually paying attention to what's actually going on around them. It's basic magic: keep them looking at one hand while they're not looking at the other.

Keep them watching sports and they won't pay attention to the erosion of their civil liberties.

This sort of ambivalence is annoying to me, especially in this modern age when people are constantly posting their political preferences on their walls, Tweets and blogs. They're posting about how they're proud not to pay attention to politics or their posts are based in ignorance of the facts. And those same people are running to the voting booths because some pundit told them how to vote and they didn't take the time or effort to research the facts for themselves.

And yet the media is supposed to be our proverbial fourth branch of government, the common citizen's view into the realm of policy makers. They're supposed to be investigating so the individual doesn't have to and reporting so we the people can be informed with the facts allowing us to take a critical view of how government operates.

And yet stories about coaches and mascots are what the NBC affiliate chooses to share on social networks.

Colorado's +9NEWS finally responds with a half-hearted apology about wanting to share more and a link to their coverage of the F.B.I.'s taking all information from Verizon for he 3 month period: Linky Linky.

There were two problems with this link. One, a personal annoyance: auto-play videos. As soon as the link is clicked and the page loads a video automatically plays. In a work environment, library or anywhere someone doesn't want others to hear what they're watching, auto-play is incredibly disrespectful. It disrespects the wishes of the active newsreader and it disrespects those people around them who might overhear. Even in a private home while one person (or people) might be watching TV or having a conversation, having an auto-play start playing and distract others in severely annoying.

The other problem is the +9NEWS article is just a reposting of a USA Today article. Where's the Colorado slant? Why should I even pay attention to this Colorado news outlet when all they're doing is republishing other's content? Why wouldn't I just go to the original source and read them, cutting out the middle man?