To the editor:
You have heard the old adage about how much is too much. I think it certainly comes into play in our times.
What I am referring to are the TV and Internet press.
There is such a proliferation that has occurred in the last 20 years that it is overwhelming, to say the least. The one problem that is most worrisome to me is the ability of the public to digest all of this info and make sense of it.
Also, how much of this is just pure propaganda and misleading? All too many people absorb this information as though it were factual and honest reporting, and that leads to many mistakes in judgment.
A recent case in point was the way they handled the Joe Paterno case.
They took a perfectly honest and good man and crucified him as though he was the perpetrator, when, in fact, he did what anyone would have done with the information given him. This just happens to be a hot-button issue at the present time. The news-hungry press saw it as an opportunity to make a sensational story out of the issue and pounced upon Joe because of his name to sensationalize the story. They caused this grand old man to die of a broken heart.
Go back to the day when the news was simply what you read, which at the time was far better reporting than what you have in all of these jocks on TV today. Also, the half-hour of evening news gave the average person all they could handle. I watch our local people and how they try to hype every story and, at times, cast aspersions. They even do it with the weather reporting - they want every story to be the story of the day, and they are not happy with fair weather at all.
Free speech is great, but when it is at some innocent person's expense, then it is not free, but rather expensive.
I know they call this the information age, but I don't see where it has done any good. Did it prevent us from entering some very costly wars in the last 40 years, with the loss of life and bankrupting our country? The reporting on this issue was very poor, and as we always say, it followed the party line. If it had been handled properly, these wars might not have happened.
The press was complicit with the politicos on these and did the public no favors. A good free press can prevent wrongs from occurring with good, truthful, unbiased reporting. That is the problem today.
There is a real need in our country to rethink our role in the world and what we want for future generations.
That means taking as much interest as we can in what is going on in government, not just national, but local also, and analyze the news and try to sort fact from fiction.
Guy Indovina
Steubenville
