“When airplanes take off and land safely, it’s not news… It’s when they crash.” — David T. Young

The media in these modern times has been taking a lot of heat for its role in the awful violent developments we’ve been seeing and hearing about. Some of the criticism is justified. Some isn’t.

I have become alarmed over the years about how the broadcast media, the Internet media and print media seem to have forsaken the noble mission of informing the public about important events and developments. Serious news coverage seems to have declined over the past several decades, replaced by a lot of manufactured public relations hooey and sensationalist crime reportage.

The reason seems to be one of the oldest in history — money.

The media doesn’t make money by telling you the news. It does when it uses events and developments to get you to reach for your wallets.

There was a time when the print media routinely covered government meetings, even when public attendance was sparse. The theory in days gone by was that those who couldn’t or didn’t want to go to these meetings could learn about what was happening by reading the local newspaper. Meanwhile, when they read news accounts, it was believed they would notice paid advertisements, which acted as sponsor of the community media service.

That model has crashed and burned. Rarely have I seen or heard of the MLive group covering a government meeting, where decisions are being made affecting the lives of local citizens. What I do see and hear often is claptrap about coming entertainment events or promoting local business establishments. The reason is money.

Broadcast media is even worse, mostly because print media is going through a slow and agonizing death. Television news is lousy because those who deliver it have been ordered by smarty-pants consultants to tell the viewers constantly about how hard they’re working and how they’re all over this story.

TV news, when it isn’t hyping itself and its sponsors, focuses heavily on crime and public safety. There’s an even more striking reason — it’s what the public wants.

Though viewers, listeners and readers constantly say they’re tired of all the negative news, objective data tells us otherwise — it’s like they’re rubbernecking while passing by a traffic crash or being glued to the set over the latest robbery or shooting. Media officials certainly understand this and they tailor their product, the news, to meet the demands of an audience more interested in being entertained rather than being informed.

What makes it even worse is that eventually common everyday folks start to believe all this garbage being reported somehow is the norm for our lives. They fear a pedophile around every corner, a mugger on our street, a terrorist in our town. But evidence actually shows us these calamities are rare. We’re more likely to be struck by lightning than killed by a terrorist.

This fear mongering and manipulative huckstering has been happening and increasing during my lifetime and during my checkered career in community journalism, the latter which has spanned more than 40 years.

And in the end, two important quotes stand above the rest in evaluation: The Apostle Paul’s “The love of money is at the root of all evil” and Walt Kelly’s Pogo lament, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”