We have a lot of choices in how we get our news.
Media corporations such as CNN, FOX NEWS and MSNBC run 24-hour news networks as well as up-to-date Web sites to satisfy our curiosity. The news channels are generally disappointing as they attempt to stretch an hour’s worth of actual news over a 24-hour period, when there really is a lot going on each day they could be reporting on, but its not happening here or in Iraq so its not important.
Then they fill up the remaining time with commercials and pundits like Wolf Blitzer and Bill O’Reilly spouting opinions as fact. Is there anything more worthless than opinions in news media? What a bunch of attention seeking wind-bags.
I get my news from my Nintendo Wii. A free function of the Wii is a news channel that does essentially what most news outlets do, it streams in news from the Associated Press. With my Wii remote I surf through article after article as the Wii news globe spins to show me where each story is located. Pleasant music plays in the background and I enjoy learning about the world in which I keep all my stuff, including my Wii. I feel like a citizen of Earth.
There isn’t a single commercial, there are no graphic explosions with twenty American flags waving in digital patriotism between stories, not a single pundit, not one talking head insulting my intelligence as he or she feigns appropriate emotions with each news item.
My Wii doesn’t judge the news, or interpret the news, or react in anyway to the news each day. The colors red, white, and blue don’t figure into every single frame of the picture. It allows me to select my own emotions as I read each article. Even as a Japanese product, Japan isn’t five times bigger than it really is on the globe.
Flipping back to CNN and FOX NEWS is jarring. The tickers, the graphics, the jabbering little heads saying nothing of value. Why does the Wii, a toy, do a better job of conveying the news than a multimillion dollar corporation?
Wii News isn’t any less informative than CNN.com in story content. On Oct. 22, it displayed 46 domestic stories (for the US, if you live elsewhere it will orient that nations stories to domestic and US stories to international), 62 international stories, 55 sports stories, 5 Science/Health stories, and 62 business stories, and 13 technology stories.
Is there a demand for the sensory overload that is the 24-hour news network? We accept them unquestioningly, and then they compete for our attention by cramming more and more useless tickers and pundits into the day. Why isn’t there a simple station where the news is just news? My Wii works fine for now, and the other news outlets are just wiik.