I think we can have "news" that is expolitive and is about grief and emotional manipulation. It can be dangerous. 9/11 is a perfect example. People far away from the actual events can have trouble dealing with it based on that exposure.

We have to ask ourselves why we watch? Is it interferring with life? Is it making us feel worse? And a litany of things.

The  tales can be to honour victims or intended to evoke tears or both. Since "news" is a ratings game, can be sensational, we have to know their motive. We have to look at not just motive, but what it accomplishes in us. That is personal. What is our motive for watching?

It can flatter the survivors with how much they feel, make them feel they are better than the shooter, how lucky they are.... It can also stir the same anger that it is supposed to be addressing. It can stir someone to say "society caused this" and cause more hatred of society and lead to another name we blast across the airwaves. It can lead to a copycat.

I am not a fan of slapping a "porn" label on it. Porn can be something one person watches as a marital aid. Porn can also be something people watch dangerously.

Is the media exploiting it for ratings? Tell me things they can exploit for ratings, for profits,  that they don't?

It is VERY EASY news to generate and can run for weeks. News media love the cost-per-word/per audience-hit economy of tear-wringing non-journalism: all those funerals? Clip and paste from old stories (background) send a photographer, splash it all over. Cheap, nasty, cynical… and it works!

I am not willing to haul out the wide brush. Not every outlet is dealing with it in the same way. Not every TV station, not every paper, not every reporter.... ( they have trouble competing or cannot compete with the ones people ARE watching, reading)

We, by now, know there were those who did not check sources and do the work, there were those who read it off the wire and ran with it, reporting names, relations, professions, numbers.... and all incorrectly.

Not many people remember the brother who had his name put out everywhere or all the angry violent words and threats made.

There were, however, others who held names, relations, professions, numbers...

There are those pedalling news that is more social media than news. There are those pedalling sensationalism and gossip more like The National Enquirer than what news is IMO supposed to mean.

Yes, I hear the smarmy tones that seek to suck you into tears and wrack you with emotion. I also know that in a case like this it is not necessary. I  hear the louder tones and the words designed to work you into a frenzy. It too, is not necessary.

I also hear those calm and measured voices who are not stroking you to get something.  I hear those who are only interested in facts. I hear those who invite you to think and do not tell you what to believe.
 

News and journalism is close to home for me.

That broad brush, I know, splatters paint where paint does not belong.

Hi crazyheart,

For clarification am I allowed to comment on the question as the poster who used the phase or should I wait for conversation to develop further?

Grace and peace to you.

John

Hi John, I did not see you post these words. Feel free to reply on this thread any time what ever you  want.

RevJohn,

I agree with your deeming "the 24 newscycle" can be exploitative and that it can be even emotional porn. They hope you stay tuned round the clock regarding this story or that. It is why they suspend the "normally scheduled programming" of stocks,business, medical, legal, political... diverse and widespread news. It is why there exists little other deemed newsworthy. It all stops for one story.
 

It does not have to even be an emotional one. The whole of "news" can rely on one vote in a court or in the political arena. It can be one sensational item. It can be one scandal.

It gets many off. That does not mean it gets everyone off.

It also does not mean all iof it s porn.

Porn can be as much about the user as the medium.

 I saw Rev John post this on another thread and I thought "Interesting phrase". I would like to hear your thoughts on it Rev John.

To me, "emotional exploitation" pretty much sums it up. I agree it happens in the media all the time. When a sad story and/ or scary story happens, it gobbles up the airwaves as if nothing else is happening in the world all of a sudden and yesterdays's story is old news-which shows how much power the media has to shift our attention as it wants to.  We are manipulated from one breaking story to the next and yo-yoed around. What happened in Newtown, Conn. is tragically sad, but I think the media manipulates our emotions too much. To make it into a |human interest story" now by interviewing kids especially, to satisfy the morbid curiousity of the viewing public is not right. People there  should be left be to grieve. Sure converstations need to take place about why such horrific incidents happen and what to do--but that doesn't need to be done by getting in the faces of that community and exploiting the grief that others are going through.

People are drawn to events such as this like moths to a flame because their idyllic view of life is temporarily shattered and they struggle to make excuses to justify such an event so that they may go back to their self deluding lives. They need the media to lead them back to that place where reality dare not stick it's ugly head.

As time progresses we are intentionally lead away from fact to reaction where the media need not ask the real questions, that of course no longer being their purpose in life. I was surprised they hadn't yet gone into a description of fashion worn by students, however I did recently see the police chief's comments refer to the fashion of the first graders. Always a must to mention the fashion in a manufactured society.
 

Why, like with the movie theatre shooting are all the reports of a second shooter by witnesses being ignored? Will anyone ever followed up to see if the one arrested in this case fades from sight to be never seen again? Will anyone stop and ask what human beings benefit from this epidemic of senseless and tragic shootings all having the same M.O.? Who benefits from driving people further into fear for the greater cause? Will they look higher or remain narrowly focused? Did this cross the people's minds or did they immediately get defensive of their guns? Did they question how these acts are the result of the very attitude God said would result from self determination of good and evil...or did they immediately get defensive of their guns?

Such is the job of today's media, draw us in and spit us back out conditioned to react in ways devoid of dangerous questions, be it about events or the God/world relationship.

Something to think about while the media leads us in the opposite direction.

controled porn

Connecticut Police Spokesman Newtown Will Prosecute Independant Journalist Whistleblowers

 thank the Ministry of Truth for continuing to threaten, er I mean "inform", us to only believe what the official manufactured story is and that none of us should bother trying to figure out the truth behind these horrific events. Thank you, Ministry of Truth and Propaganda, life is so much easier when I just accept what the criminal corporate media and "the authorities" tell me what to think! 

If one questions then the people can not be easily lead to the alter of protection only the system can offer. LOL The closer we get to a fascist state, the more essential it will be to erode freedoms but first convince the masses it is for it's own good. As a result the incidents will get more horrific. Do you think a slaughter of first graders is horrific? Just wait. And don't look for a Christian viewpoint in the nation either other than leave us our guns and abortion kills more than "lone nerds".

This is a historic moment where an official proclamation declaring freedom of speech is now dead.

The last frontier ?, the internet will be censored , so much for freedom of speech and truth 

Can the rest of the world be far behind? And people accused Germans of being gullible? It will be interesting to see if this low official is reined in for disclosing a plan prematurely, or if the idea is to create civil unrest over this and guns in order to invoke fewer freedoms in return for "security", even if it leads to martial law.
 

I think of porn in the sense that it is not sexually exciting but rather emotionally - we get sucked in and keep watching or checking in and we can't let go.

The media, particularly when a horrible event occurs, tends to focus on the horror, the sadness etc.  I think of a tragic situation that I responded to a few years ago and the feeling was different.  There was the grief and horror yes, but there was also strength, resilience, community outpouring etc.  What we see on tv isn't the whole picture by any stretch and not so much geared to reporting the facts but rather keeping you tuned in. 

So people watching can become emotionally manipulated or sucked in and feel extreme emotions about people and events they have no connection to. 

Anybody read any literature on the psychology of fear?

It is closely realted to anger and between the two they can separate emotions and intellect in the soul ... leaving one unbalanced ... just the way the higher powers like it ... if the low people think the higher emotions would be disrupted ... leading to co-eruption ... paired dsiruptions to keep the medium fired up ... from down below an icon of sublimity ... subdural understanding so deep we don't use it anymore except in the dark arts of wissdom literature and po'etics that are so far gone that few pay any attention to understanding affections of divine peoples ... them's divided eh-bye!

Thats the way it is here ... gotta be a place for the way it isn't ... profound rapure in the fabrication ... celestial weaving ... by Ur out there in the tower ... metaphorically it is contained space well warped ...

Hi crazyheart,

Emotional Porn.

I said it, I should back it up.

Most have already hit on the points I would make.  We are drawn to tragedy as moths are drawn to flame.  We have other addictions which suck us in as well.

There was a time when the news was fact based.

So where does the NRA believing that arming school teachers stand as far as fact goes?  I get that it is an opinion.

What is the factual connection between the Tea-Party and the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting? None really, but it has an opinion too.

What is Mike Huckabee's relationship to the Sandy Hook Massacre? None unless you count an opinion as connection.

Do we learn anything from these opinions?  Other than the fact that if you stick a microphone in somebody's face they will say something stupid?  Particularly when the smartest thing to do would be to say "no comment."

What is the newest thing we have learned about the Sandy Hook shooting on this very thread?  That there is already a conspiracy attempting to hide the truth about what really happened.  Well, that is what is beling alleged by sites specializing in conspiracy theories.

So seems like some are mainlining fear and others are going  for hostility.

Is any of this emotion genuinely ours?  Sure, all of it is ours.  Is any of it connected to Sandy Hook?  Nope.  Until Friday most of us had no idea Sandy Hook even existed or what it was.

The tragedy in Connecticut and the ridiculous morons who have claimed to know the causes were all we needed to let these emotions flow.  Some NRA supporter I've never heard of spouts nonsense and that is permission for me to rant back at him and his stupid idea, slagging some of his nutbar associates along the way.  The Tea Party just needs to be referenced for allegations of ignorance to fly.  Mike Huckabee shoots his lips off and we're outraged.

As if.

We are afraid, and frightened and every opinion elevates the panic.  So we sit and stare and wait for more.

28 dead in a Connecticul city and it is all about what we feel.

Job's comforters managed to keep their traps shut for a week.  I'm betting because nobody stuck a microphone in their face and asked for a comment.

Which is not to say that nobody should be talking.

If we have to put somebody in front of the camera it should be somebody with a real clue and not an opinion about a possible one.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Meredith, thanks.

RevJohn, thanks again.

The thing that strikes me most is that in the spring 22 children and 6 adults were killed when a Swiss bus crashed (most were 12 years old). Approximately one month ago, a bus load of children were hit by a train in Egypt, 47 kindergartners were killed.

Yet, were were not glued. Their names are not known. The town names where it happened are not even known.

Why?

It is "ours" versus "theirs" in the media? Is the media reading us well or poorly? Do we need to solve it? Do we need to get into his head?

Is it an enemy to hate or someone to be mad at?  Is it that guns do something to us?

If we plaster gun violence on TV, know the shooter's name, show how this gets to us as society.... and make lives matter based on HOW they died... and some poor soul feels they need their flame that is flickering to go out in a blaze of glory, to punish scoeity or hurt us the way we have hurt them.... do we add to the problem?

Thanks everyone.This is a very interesting thread.

Crazyheart, normally I watch the news while I get ready in the morning.  If nothing is on tv, and we feel like watching something, we turn on cbc news.

Yesterday & the day before we watched less tv than normal.

Why?  I hate the fear mongering, emotional "porn", jerking around.

I was ticked at CBC.  Nothing new to report, but they played it again & again.  I had to go to CBC Radio to find news of what was going on in the world. 

Now, having said that, it was better than CNN coverage, but, ugh.

I hate it.

My Dad on the other hand was glued to the tv.  Had nothign else to talk about. Did not like me saying that it was manipulative and making money off of someone else's pain.

Pinga,

My wife and I watched old movies over the weekend and avoided most of the "news".

Working online during the day, I usually have the TV on as "background noise".

It has not been the usual, as even non-news shows have been focused on it exclusively, my TV has been on Holiday Music all day.

I called someone today and they could not believe I am not glued to CNN.  Another person was upset that I sent a cartoon because not of its content, but it was inappropriate in light of events.

Oh dear....

Reality show mentality

I also find that American News from Fox to CNN  know how to do this with all the lights and colour and theatrics of a movie. Canada not so much.

Clergy, polititions, medical  people all fall into the trap and the general public follow..

Crazyheart, I agree.

American news folks know how to do these thingsthat suck audiences in..... and it is not just violence - "The Snowstorm of the Century" will do....

TRAGEDY AT NEWTOWN

That's a nice article, Blackbelt. I like what he said, "what you win them with is what you win them to".

One thing I don't agree with is he made it seem like taking down nativity scenes and not having Bibles in schools was a root cause of mass murders. I don't think so. For one, I don't think it is possible to take God out of anywhere. God will be where God will be. I don't for a moment believe God would allow this to happen to innocent children because their parents and teachers didn't put Bibles in schools or nativities on their lawns. There are many places that don't read Bibles in schools or put up nativity scenes and they don't have mass shootings. .And the other thing is that if the Bible is being used as an instrument of fear, and the nativity and what it means is already being misrepresented by the people observing it, then what difference does it make if the symbols are there or not? The meaning is either there, in the heart, or it is not, and if people act out of love, then they will nurture love around them. So, I think in a way, to say that it's because of those things only plays into the fear  mongering that he is saying we need to challenge.

I personally think this tragedy happened because of guns and gun culture.  Guns exist for the purpose of killing and should never be in homes. That was a huge part of it. It doesn't matter if nativity scenes are up as long as people find it necessary to pack guns--if guns are there, the message is lost anyway. I think guns are evil--especially those that have no other purpose but to shoot people. When it comes to hunting, perhaps hunters should keep rifles in a secure public facility where they have to "check in and check out" their guns everytime they use them for game hunting. It would be more inconvenient, but at least who is using them and when could be monitored. They should not be kept in homes.  Because guns got into the hands of someone who shouldn't be near guns. And by the sounds of it, he was brought up around guns. 

"The tragedy that shook Newtown, Connecticut, and indeed the entire nation, defies analysis."

Nonsense, such activity plays right into our unlimited sense of aggression ... eventually this sense of loss of balance explodes ... and oppression turns about on us ... Egos? Almost Canan in the present sense of ignorance of ancient lesson learned and ... abruotly forgotten ... for we didn't wish to know ...  and the bull's Luce ...

As the culture becomes more Narcissistic then we are more caught.  It is our narcissism that is appealed to.  The media knows this, just as some preachers know this. It is not all about us.

*Spoiler alert*

The secret to success in the eyes and traditional ways of mankind is to take advantage of other's weaknesses.

The secret in the eyes of God is that we all share weaknesses and we should not take advantage of others any more than we would want them to gain by playing on our own weaknesses whatever they may be.