Listen on Gems with Emm Podcast
It’s time to put on your game face, dig in your heels and fight the good fight. COVID-19 is here in the United States and has hunkered down on our eastern and western coasts. As of late March 2020, NY, California, Washington State, and on a lesser scale Illinois, house the majority of cases of the novel disease. This pandemic is real.
What can cause Americans great distress – aside from the obvious loss of life, pain and suffering – is the media’s behavior and strategy in reporting this event. Typically, media outlets report from every conceivable angle … ad nauseum. So, not only should we be hearing about death tolls, but about those that have contracted the virus in every demographic imaginable: the single mom; the hardworking dad thrust out of work; the twins – one with the virus and one without; the extended family protecting grandma; the celebrity experience; and the oversized family of 10.
We should be hearing stories from the angle of the high level executive to the poor homeless; from the famous to the teen fan; from the loyal pet who rescued his owner and vice versa. Then, there would be all the accounts detailing what exactly it feels like to have COVID-19: reports running the gamut from stuffy nose and cough to acute pain and hospitalization. Stories of recovery would also be included: from the quick and painless to the patient pulled back from death’s door. And all the feel-good portraits of communities coming together to make a difference would show us humanity at its best. Where are those stories?
Although this virus is still moving upward in the curve of its attack on America, those stories are still out there. Why aren’t we hearing more of them? Why aren’t we being given perspective and context with which to view this enemy?
What we are hearing is sensationalism, fatalism, doom and gloom, and fear-mongering that leaves Americans feeling helpless, hopeless and victimized. To add insult to injury, media hyper-criticism and lack of courtesy and goodwill for those working so tirelessly to confront and defeat this common foe has no place in this historic and unchartered territory.
After hearing an intelligently and responsibly executed prong of America’s defense against the virus, some of the media questions are still snarky, loaded, and clearly designed to trap the person answering it. Do those reporters have malevolent intentions? Are they trying to douse the optimistic, stalwart American spirit?
All hands are on deck and the marching orders are clearly being carried out against the backdrop of a pandemic, the limitations of physics, and time being finite. Should our media show a modicum of gratitude, give credit where it is clearly due, and offer a sliver of hope, optimism, and good old fashioned pride in our country’s ability to weather a storm?
Could there be a biased media mindset playing some part in the irresponsible reporting around this tragic pandemic? Whether that sentiment is true or not, the fact remains that the media is reporting very little good news while diligently pounding negative stories. News desks are repeating the same sensationalized pronouncements by recycling, rewording, and recreating big stories out of tiny bits of information – even old information previously told and retold. And all this while ignoring the other side of COVID-19: the positive side, the non-contracted side, the Slow The Spread side, the recovery side.
That positive side includes: historic alliances between government and the private sector; American generosity, individually and through its many agencies; targeted government assistance for all Americans in financial need due to this pandemic; swift and decisive action by the US government that both saves and protects American lives; innovative ideas being implemented to solve real world problems caused by the virus, including challenges in education, medicine, science, and the economy.
America needs hope. It needs truth. It needs to be reminded of how strong, innovative, bold, brave, generous, and resilient we are as a country. Although this virus is still on the prowl and hasn’t yet reached its peak in our country, for all the confirmed cases of COVID-19, there are still over 330 million Americans without the virus. For every death due to this disease, there are nearly 300,000 Americans that beat it. Why aren’t we being flooded with those stories, too? It seems that fair reporting was dead before the virus hit our shores.
#NotAfraidToThink #CovidDoesn’tWin #MediaBias #FairReporting
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