It's news, but not as we know it

I rarely watch the news on TV. I hate it. I'd much rather check out Politiken (for my Danish fix), the BBC and the Guardian online. I find TV news far too biased.

I hate being fed the shit of the world. War after war, suidice bomb after suicide bomb, beheading after beheading, pirates, disaster, chaos - it's depressing, and I just can't shake the feeling that all I'm watching is what 'they' think I should be watching, with all the right amount of spin, at just the right angle. I'd rather turn it off. 

People watch the news, and from that form their opinions (I know this isn't the case for everyone!). That bugs the crap out of me. I can't help but wonder whether bad news breed bad news? Are we more inclined to violence the more we see it? Does it somehow become normalised? When all we're shown is violence and hate, non-stop, are we led to believe that that's just how it is? 

What happens when the anger stops? When the war is over? When the natural disaster has stopped being so exciting to watch, safe from our sofas thousands of miles away? What then? Well of course it's straight back out there to some other war, some other terrible event that will sell. Bad news is good news and all that crap. I'm sick of it. 

So I abstain from the news that someone else has decided is news. I check out 'the news' online and try my best to get a objective view. It's hard - if not impossible - but I like to think that because I don't commit myself to an hour or so of TV news a day, my life is somewhat less terrifying. I don't think it's being ignorant, I think it's simply choosing not to be bullied by what the media want to sell us. 

Anyway, I'm getting a bit off track. I have made a decision. I once thought that if I won the lottery (it'd have to be a pretty big one) I'd buy Battersea Power Station, which I still will do, but I will also establish a television channel. A news channel. A news channel that is solely devoted to good news. The kind of news you'd like to hear about. I can not for one second believe that nothing but shit happens in this world. People do have good in them. 

How on earth did we get this idea in our heads that bad news is more interesting than good? Why is it more entertaining to hear about a disaster than something wonderful? Occasionally small stories do pop up, sometimes at the end of a news broadcast (usually when they have nothing else to say), and of course on social media, like Facebook stories, but to actually have a channel devoted to it? I think that would make a world of difference. I know I for one would lave my flat and start my day off in a completely different frame of mind if I had just watched 30 minutes of life confirming, good news rather than mindless murder, rage and rampage.

The smallest snatches of good news restores my faith in mankind. What's upsetting about that is that I even need my faith restored. 

I'm holding out for that lottery, and when I win, I hope you'll tune in.