Here and Now

It is time, past time really, to report on my hatred of local news. Local news is the absolute worse source of information. To think at one point I wanted to be a reporter and one of my idols is Katie Couric, she had to start with local news. My dislike of the local news began in fifth grade when I watched the KCTV-5 every night as I was falling asleep and was confirmed my freshman year of high school. The story of my confirmation lies below, skip to paragraph three if you can just accept local news for the horror that it is.

A teacher who tells me I am not allowed to cite wikipedia definitely can't come into class an inform me the animals at the Kansas City Zoo are freezing. The animal lover in me had to know more. My hands went up and my friends were mortified! Where did you hear this? And why exactly are they freezing? I mean there are plenty of animals living in the wild not freezing to death, plus I thought it was above freezing last night. I heard the news on KCTV-5 this morning and it turns out the heater in the polar bear cage was broken. Anyone who knows me knows I have a special place in my heart for polars bears... I was even more intrigued. Why in the world are we heating them? Polar bears naturally inhabit the Arctic last I checked. I left class and headed to the library to learn more. Turns out there was a mistake. The polar bears were actually too warm, the AC was not working. What a shocking reality.

Paragraph Three: We are such a here and now society. Do not report the facts, just the suspicions please. That's genius... get the world stirred up over nothing. I could not think of a better idea myself. My anger was renewed tonight by a story reported on today--the Colorado six year old who was supposedly floating away in a hot air ballon. Lo and behold the "facts"say the child was found hiding in a box in the attic of his home. This bit of local news might have gone national since I heard about this story tonight at the free clinic, and I am quite a few miles from Colorado. That does not really help me prove my local news is terrible point. Regardless, do we really need to get anxious when we do not know the facts? No. That is a waste of time, not to mention, there are so many other important topics to be brought to the attention of the people. The media loves drama, they thrive on breaking news. Next time, think before believing. A little less news and a little more life please.