Smiling to Extinction

It’s a normal morning. My son is wrapped in his blankets, dead to the world. My daughter, the pre-teen alien, is stirring in her bed but has not yet swung her feet to the floor. In the living room, ABC’s Good Morning America is on the flat screen, and George Stephanopoulos is running down the morning’s “breaking news.” I generally tune George and Robin Roberts and the rest of the GMA crew (the GMA website calls them a “cast”) out in favor of going about the business of getting ready for the day. After a report about the hot water the White House is in over the NSA’s reckless spying on foreign governments whom the US counts among its allies, and an interview with New Jersey governor Chris Christie (potential presidential candidate, mind you!) on the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, GMA moved to its bread and butter -- a report (several minutes in length and complete with CGI graphics) about a foiled kidnapping in some god-forsaken American hamlet, followed by a report about a daring and brazen escape from an Oklahoma prison. Four devious and dangerous inmates on the loose! How can we protect ourselves?

Generally it’s just white noise while I nag my daughter to get into the bathroom, or beg my son to wake up, but on this late fall morning, as the GMA drivel droned on, I began to think about all the important stories that go unreported every day, or that get reported and are quickly forgotten, and all the voices we never hear on the networks. It wasn’t that long ago when North Korea posed a threat to the civilized world; for a few days the US media was on that story like white on rice, with dire predictions and plenty of saber rattling, but when North Korea failed to launch its missiles, the story fizzled and then disappeared.

The condition of the Fukushima nuclear site is another disappearing story. How can GMA spend four or five minutes on a ridiculous piece about a kidnapping, and devote no time whatsoever to a real, ongoing catastrophe? I have no doubt that the world is woefully ignorant of how grave the Fukushima situation really is, or how severe the consequences will be in the years ahead. The truth isn’t being told, but let’s not worry our pretty little heads about radiation; just keep eating at Taco Bell, buying the latest Apple gadgets, and believing in the righteousness of American style capitalism. Keep a smile on your face while you consume your way to personal fulfillment. 

Put another way: ignore reality and it might go away. Or: believe not in what you see, but in magic, fairy tales, myths, and legends.

Remember when more than a dozen US consulates and embassies in the Middle East closed down because of a “vague yet specific” terrorist threat? ABC News and its cousins were in full throat then, fanning our fears of evil Muslim terrorists and a repeat of Benghazi. Like North Korea, this threat never bore fruit, and quickly disappeared from our consciousness.

When my anti-bullshit force field fails and I actually tune in to GMA the word that comes to mind is infantile. While I understand that a network morning show is a banal mixture of news, celebrity trivia, fads, and pop culture, does the viewing audience need to be treated like morons, as if we are incapable of handling the truth about our economy, our environment, and our government? The “anchors” or “cast” members smile through human-made and natural disasters; they read their lines and laugh on cue, and never, ever, question the status quo.

As Neil Postman said many years ago, we are amusing ourselves to death.