With only a couple of weeks leading up to a very important election, the news cycle is starting to be timed in milliseconds rather than days or weeks. Gone are the issues of the day or something that a Newsweek publication could sum up in Monday’s edition. The news is coming hot and it’s coming heavy.
This whirlwind of developments is only adding to whatever ADHD I had previously. I close Twitter on my phone and open Twitter seconds later. When I’m not on Twitter, I’m checking Facebook or CNN. I’ve stopped short of installing TikTok, but that’s probably next, frankly.
I’m not sure why I do this to myself. The news is depressing and in control of a narcissist. Yet here I am gobbling it up like my wife’s mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving. The political climate helmed by a reality show host has, somehow, pushed all of the triggers to engage my senses. It is fast-paced. It is unexpected. It is emotional. It is also, most likely, as unhealthy as not wearing a mask inside of a party. Yet here I am.
But even a week like this week is impressive in the volume of stories pushed aside for the next story. It started with the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg that was swiftly pushed aside to the pending nomination of Amy Coney Barrett. For about 5 seconds there, Trump’s taxes and the fallout were published. But that’s not even top 10 this week. This, of course was quickly followed by the dominos of positive Covid tests coming out of the Trump White House. And then the kabuki theater of the hospital stay, the release, the grand gesture of returning to the White House and possibly a moment of calm.
Except that won’t happen because there are less than 30 days until the election and I will guarantee you that whatever happens next will be enough to push all of that craziness down.
Remember murder hornets? Well, apparently scientists are worried that they’re still around and getting pissed. But you probably missed that because our President signed some blank pieces of paper.
Remember all those hurricanes? They’ve already gone through all of the letters of the alphabet and are on their second go around with a storm that’s building in the Gulf.
And that’s just the bad news. Look, at this point, your politics are your politics. Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, that fella in Washington is sucking all of the air out of the room and that’s not healthy for anyone. (At least he’s not blowing air into the room because COVID. Am I right??) But seriously.
There are good things happening that aren’t even 10th page news right now. A man rode 200 miles in Scotland on his daughter’s pink bicycle for charity. Egypt unsealed some coffins. (Although why you’d tempt fate in 2020 like that is beyond me.) Organ donation is at an all-time high. People are pitching in to save small businesses struggling with the pandemic.
You’re never going to get a fully balanced dose of good news vs. bad news in your media. I get that. If it bleeds, it leads. But the pace and frenzy of news right now – all of it troubling – isn’t helping anybody. I can’t wait until our next slow news week. Maybe it comes in mid-November.
(Good or bad, you’ll find Chris Kamler on Twitter @TheFakeNed and on Landmark Live Thursday night at 6 at Platte County Landmark on Facebook and at plattecountylandmark.com)