The announcer on our evening news
Was looking rather glum,
Presenting all the latest views
Assuming we were dumb
He told us that the outer space
We’d poisoned over years
Would soon destroy the human race
He almost came to tears!
Then focused on the raging wars
That flourished round the earth
Through broken glass and shattered doors
And flying broken turf
Came cries of suffering starving men
Who’d fled their native place;
The camera focused now and then
On death’s stark cold embrace
We saw some farmland bleached and dried
Bank seizure soon to be,
And scenes of flooding though men tried
To tame that inland sea
And not too far away from us
A robber breaking in
While apprehended in the fuss
Shot people with a grin
The camera showed a highway wreck
A truck had crossed a lane
A motorcyclist failed to check
Life ended in a drain
Why is it that our evening news
Will dwell on all that’s bad?
Disseminating gloomy views
Events that make you sad
I’d like to see some balance placed
In things on news report
Health battles won and trials faced
With fortitude and thought
Of situations beautiful
Of family times of glee
Of culture rich and bountiful
Of things that uplift me
“© Copyright Ian Grice 2012 all rights reserved”
ianscyberspace 
Totally agree with your last comment, Ian! Totally!
Thanks for sharing. 🙂
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Oh, do I ever agree with you on this issue sweet Ian. I rarely watch TV anymore or read the news in the newspaper either. Love the way you put your message in poetic form…wish I were so talented. Hugs and Happy Australia Day!
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Well of course you are talented Mumsy. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.
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Years ago a BBC journalist came with a proposition to include more positive items into the news. i don’t know if his proposition ever made it; Judging from what I hear I think not; But then most of us seem to like bad news, How much gossip is about something positive?
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That’s the problem. Media Moguls will only focus on what the people want. So in the final analysis it’s us that is the problem. As you’ve said, we all like something horrific or gossipy to feast on. LOL
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Personally I quit watching tv long ago..
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Of light and joy, of sunny days,
the news reporter wrote and talked,
and only happy, cheerful surveys
he showed the viewers, who set and gawked.
The audience yawned back and started to claim
those much more interesting facts of shame
of gore and sadness they asked the news
as short relief of their daily blues.
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I like the thoughts you added to my poem above. You made the very valid point we as a media audience would prefer exciting horror stories and that’s why the media serves it up daily. It requires a mind change in society before the ideal of continuous “good news” will be served up to us. As our minds become enobled the media barons will note this and we will have a more balanced news service. They say we get the politicians we deserve, and I suppose that goes for the news media too.
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I remember researching the coming of sensational news (we call it dark chronicles) in Italy around the 50s and the audience getting more and more hooked on it. It’s a shame but that’s what people want to hear, darkness and gossip and darkness and gossip.
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Yes the need for excitement in any form is almost hypnotic isn’t it?
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Hear! Hear!
I am all for hearing positive news too.
Cheers, Eric
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Yes Eric, we would be foolish to ignore the bad news as that is a prompt for us to put what pressure we can to change society were we can. But good news is uplifting and that too can be a means of changing society when we search of the good and cherish it.
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