Does ‘News’ Analysis Achieve Anything?

Nobody minds news on political outcomes, good news and knowing what’s happening when it’s relevant around the world, but with so much irrelevant news – ie gossip, backstabbing,  twittering and newscasters and stations with personal agendas, can anything really be achieved by analysing corruption, as they seem to do more and more of the time? I’m not sure it can. I do believe however that Christians and others need to stop the naive hope that we will ever see it as the norm, for corrupt politicians to be brought to book or go to jail for their crimes, and endlessly debating (the Bible tells us to avoid); should this person go to jail – or that person, is a big waste of life. Look at corrupt politics and justice historically – it almost NEVER pans out the way it should. It’s always scapegoats, or the wrong person that ends up behind bars – rarely the real criminal(s), and there is good reason for it. Namely that unseen legal heir-achy that applies differently to different people, depending on who you are, your status, the threat you may be to uncovering other criminals, who you know and more importantly – which master you have knowingly or unknowingly submitted and sold your soul to.

Can you imagine if you or I was really smart person and commander in chief of security of our country, with decades of lawyerly background behinds us, and we put top secret emails on our home – yes home server, and then claimed they didn’t know what ‘c’ meant, then covered for our husband’s illicit affairs – and then had the audacity to run for president, and not at least get a slap on the wrist but be revered and adored for your actions just because you happen to simultaneously project an image of being a sweet grandmother who couldn’t possibly be in it for the money? It would never happen. In fact, I have a friend who’s elderly mother WAS placed behind bars for a few years for getting unintentionally dragged into a tiny amount of tax evasion. There is no excuse for it, but let’s get one thing straight; this is NOTHING – NOTHING in comparison to the back-handers we see politicians constantly getting away with, day in day out under the guise of ‘business’, ‘charity’ and a thousand other appearances of light.

Or can you imagine if you or I had done one tenth of what we see happening in politics generally, with them all lying and covering for one another in broad daylight. Would we still be free? Of course not. And then there’s all the talking heads or twits as I prefer to call them on Twitter – endlessly chattering about who is and isn’t guilty of x,y or z, as if they are going to have any real effect on the outcome, or the real powers behind the throne.

 When I first saw Twitter I thought it was a dreadful idea – people sharing what style of coffee they were having at breakfast in a few words – so I knew it would be a huge success with people these days having attention spans slightly longer than birds. But then I felt there was some light as I realised it could bypass the biased news monopolies and give us instant real news updates, but alas no… it just morphed into a hyper-gossip service and back-biting haven on steroids. And in any case, I always knew most news was exacerbating world problems, and not making us all more aware and therefore ‘socially responsible’ as they might claim. Sure it’s good we know that there are tyrants out there, but when all is said and done, I think endless bad news makes us all desensitised to it and there is no longer any shock or revolt. Probably what our adversary wants come to think of it. Can you imagine God instituting ‘news’ and gossip networks as they are? Never.

My little rant here is wast of time enough, but unbeknownst to the users of it, Twit-ster really is a total waste of time and energy and resources – there I said it. The irony is that Twitter literally makes twits of all its users, most of whom feel pressured to use it and would give it up in a heartbeat if they felt they had a choice (which of course they do, and just need a little more guts to kick this site and the habit of endless gossiping and false witnessing into touch once and for all).

So it’s futile in my humble opinion to hope that our systems of justice – though they are pretty good in the West comparatively – as they are based on biblical principles – will be upheld for politicians as they are for us or the opposition in the long term or even in most cases in this life. And as we all know, this kind of double standard, and calling good evil and evil good is foretold (I prefer the word ‘foretold’ than ‘predicted’ as the latter indicates that something may or may not happen) in the Bible.