Published: September 30, 2009 12:46 am      

GESENHUES: Sometimes things go right

Bad news gets higher ratings and sells ad space. Terrorist plots and missing girls offer cable news programming something to talk about for weeks. Recently, there have been two stories that could have made millions of dollars for all the news networks; fortunately, their profit margins were dramatically hit when the stories turned up with happy endings.

Last week an accused Al Qaeda terrorist who had been planning bomb attacks around the 9/11 anniversary in New York City was brought to Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center by federal authorities. He will be held there, in solitary confinement, until his arraignment this week.

This past weekend, an Amber Alert was canceled after a missing 13-year-old girl had been found and her captor arrested. In less than 24 hours, police received information that led directly to the suspect’s vehicle in Wisconsin even though she was abducted from the Owensboro, Ky., area.

Both of these stories could have resulted in much different and far worse endings. There is always more to report when a story ends badly. A missing child leaves several lingering questions and people to be interviewed. A terrorist plot that goes as planned leaves hundreds of victims and families of victims who all have stories to tell.

But, when the story has a definitive ending (the terrorist was caught; the girl was found), there is no need to interview the missing girl’s neighbor or the bomb victim’s brother. And just as quickly as it appeared, the story with the happy ending drops out of the daily news cycle and our collective consciousness.

I believe that our thoughts are all powerful and affect the entire world around us. In my world, our thoughts ignite our emotions and turn into actions which create our reality. If the majority of what we are told on television, in newspapers, and online is steeped in gloom and doom, our collective consciousness will be dominated by sadness, fear, and anger. The deep and unfortunate irony is that mainstream media’s business model (bad news generates more money) perpetuates a reality based on this negative thought process.

So here we are stuck between a rock and the swine flu. We want to be informed and mindful citizens and consumers, but we’re constantly pushed to feel threatened that there will be no vaccine left if we’re not the first in line. Missing children and terrorists pull high ratings on air and across the radio waves. If you’ve been listening, then you know there is no end to how scared we should be or what we should fear.

A dirty little secret of mine is that I sometimes listen to Glenn Beck on my drive home from work. Beck says, “I’m frightened,” more times during one episode than Santa says, “Merry Christmas” all through the month of December. His commentary is drenched in fear-inducing rhetoric.

Personally, I believe Glenn serves the democratic-party far better than his conservative, libertarian crowd. I believe the majority of us are all fair-minded and believe in a sense of balance regardless of our political affiliations. My hope is that Glenn is pushing more people away from the conservative base than recruiting undecided voters for the Republican-party.

Regardless, after about 15 minutes of listening to him repeatedly say how frightened he is, I am left with an impending sense of doom in my gut that makes me want to crawl in a cave with a lifetime supply of bottled water and canned goods. And it’s not because I believe what he is saying; but because he projects a stream of conscious thinking based on a model of fear.

Just in the same way bad news is more profitable for the news stations, fear and anger has generated high ratings for Beck.

So what do we do? How do we search out the positive news stories with happy endings? Or do we simply turn off our televisions, radios, and computers all together.

I don’t have an answer and my addiction to news is too severe to go cold turkey. What I will continue to do is remember that the majority of us voted for hope and that our thoughts do lead to actions which create our reality. All I can do is hope for the best and be happy with what I have and know that no matter what Glenn Beck says, sometimes things go right.

  

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