Hello Violence My Old Friend

Today, sitting down and turning on the news, I had a surprising revelation. I turned on the "Top U.S. & World Headlines" from Democracy Now, which is an independent news organization that kinda is a little left leaning. It's very different to mainstream media, which is often said to be left leaning, but is actually far more complex than that.

Most American media is pro-war, which is very decidedly not left wing, since left wing refers to the olive branch of the eagle, versus the arrows, in the claw on the right side. Most American media is also very pro-cop, anti-protestor, somewhat anti-gun, and a number of other stances.

Democracy Now, in contrast, is actually far more non-partisan, deciding to use a style of news that harkens back to the good old days, when news casters were very monotone and read the headlines with much less partisan and opinion. The only "mainstream" media left like this is NPR, which ironically is often said to be partisan and liberal by the right wing.

I'm sure it does look partisan when you think Fox "News" is normal.

Democracy Now is not partisan in the sense of Fox News and The Young Turks. Both of those are so bad I can't really watch them without getting pissed off pretty quickly. Democracy Now is more left leaning in the sense that they are pro-freedom, pro-rights, like the ACLU, and other organizations, that while often said to be left-wing, are a bit more complex than that. Technically anything that is for equal rights is "left-wing". I would hope most people are for equal rights.

Although I would agree that pretty much all media these days is decidedly anti-Trump, including some clearly conservative media. Some are clearly pro-Trump though, such as Fox News. Few these days haven't gone either pro or anti-Trump. And quite a few pro-Trumpers have jumped ship by these days gone past.

But back on the story.

Watching the following Democracy Now broadcast, I found myself watching the coverage of a number of shootings. Normally I find myself squirming in my seat watching the coverage of mass shootings and violence in this country. I get this feeling in my chest and get anxious. I just can't deal with it. I've watched too many news stories about mass shootings and gun violence. Ironically I'm not even anti-gun. I find them to be basic tools that anyone can make in their garage with the right tools. They even make them by hand in the Philippines and other countries. I just can't watch the news coverage. Usually that is. Watching the Democracy Now coverage, I had no such reaction. I don't really want to hear massive coverage of mass violence, but I didn't have the anxiousness watching Democracy Now's coverage.

I don't want to guess at why exactly I have this visceral reaction to violent news. I certainly did not have good interactions during school after certain incidents like Columbine. While Columbine was clearly caused by kids being driven insane by bullying, rather then schools addressing bullying behavior after, it actually got far worse, and I even had my bag checked due to another kid claiming I was going to shoot up the school. Yeah, lets all just bully the bullied more, because they're all gonna shoot us. Lets not examine why someone might go crazy when they're being abused every fucking day.

But I digress.

Democracy Now's coverage is clearly very...news-like. They don't approach it from a standpoint like most "news" channels do these days. They don't talk about how horrible it is over and over again while showing it again and again, as if they're trying to cause some sort of mass anxiety...which clearly actually worked in my case. They just report on the news, tell you what happened, then talk to people about issues in the news.

I wish more news channels were like Democracy Now, non-profit. They don't cover stories just because they're good for ratings. They don't make you feel like you're going to have an anxiety attack because the entire country is getting shot to shit. You just see the news and consider the issues and think about what has to be done. You don't enter into a state of panic induced by their coverage.

I wonder how many others have this news induced anxiety that I mostly just ignore.