I have been a frequent critic of popular news media (television, newspapers, magazines, and so forth). My criticisms have centered on the media maxim “if it bleeds, it leads.” We are fed a steady diet of the murder and mayhem encountered in our communities, mixed in with sports, weather, national political and economic news, and an occasional, brief human interest segment. It’s entertainment.

Over time, the entertainment diet shapes our appetite for information and, in the process, our estimation of what is newsworthy and what is not. It reduces our ability to arrive at reasoned conclusions about important facts and our memory of such facts. In short, it is almost all a bloody blur. That, however, is not the least of the problem.

The production of “news” inevitably is a result of available resources, the influence of commercial sponsors and owners, and the biases of those who write, edit and select coverage. In this regard, racial minority views are poorly represented at best, and contrarian views — whatever their source or merit — are not likely to pass the selection process for investigation, publication, or sustained follow-up.

Anyway, here are a couple of examples of “news” that apparently is not worth much attention. A couple of years ago a television station produced an award-winning documentary on an automobile called the EV1. As I recall it, in the late ’80s the state of California and General Motors were required to develop and test market a zero-emissions vehicle that ran on electricity. 

What they produced was a wonderful automobile that not only produced no carbon emissions, but was also sleek, comfortable, reasonably fast, and affordable. GM, however, claimed the EV1 was not profitable. For one thing, the darn car would not break down. How would that affect GM’s after market sales?

Perhaps that is why the EV1 could not be purchased. It was, instead, made available to users on a three-year closed-end lease basis. The people who were lucky enough to get one of the cars loved it. When the three-year lease was up, as a group, they raised nearly $2 million to purchase the cars. General Motors said no. 

The cars, in like new condition, were gathered by the automobile giant, taken to a boneyard, and shredded. According to some reports, many of the people who had leased the vehicles literally broke down and cried when the cars were destroyed.

There is more. After all the EV1s were pancaked, GM came out with an alternative, the Hummer. Again, as I recall, the federal government so loved the Hummer that it provided small business owners a $100,000 tax deduction if they bought one. In effect, the deduction was enough to make this marvelous beast of a vehicle available for free. 

Gee, what if, over 10 years ago, GM and the government had marketed and sold the EV1 the same way? Might we now be seeing cleaner air, healthier people, and less dependence on foreign oil? Now that would really be news!

In another example, some time ago I wrote about the new U.S. embassy in Baghdad.  According to a Time magazine report, “the new embassy covers 104 acres and was built at a cost of $600 million.” With its four office blocks for 1,000 staff, apartment blocks containing 619 one-bedroom units, school, shopping center and food court, swimming pool, tennis and basketball courts, a gymnasium, and other amenities, it annually will cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions to secure and maintain.

Despite construction and security problems, the embassy has been completed and is being occupied by U.S. and other staff and their families. Also, according to some reports, the dirt-poor Iraqis say the self-sufficient, walled-in embassy is the only major thing the U.S. has constructed in their country since “Shock and Awe” began seven years ago. They see the embassy not only as an example of U.S. arrogance and deceit, but also as our intent to stay there “forever.” Not good news.

In closing, to return to the point of this article, you will not be hearing much on the nightly news about the two above mentioned stories. Taken together, the environmental, political and economic consequences of these major events barely have been covered. I guess there’s not enough “blood” in them.

Having said all this, I do appreciate the fact that I am free to express these opinions without fear that my hand will be cut off. As an added thought, the flipside of the “bad news” coin is that the media also may not be reporting enough good news. It’s something to think about!

Have a nice day!

Primus Mootry is an Anderson resident and a high school teacher.