Two days after the Boston Marathon bombings, I find myself still glued to whatever coverage I find and wondering whether that’s a good thing.
I’ve thought about this for a long time. It began for me on 9/11. I remember ending up in a bar with some friends doing what everyone else seemed to be doing: staring numbly at the video of the planes hitting the World Trade Center on the television that hung on the wall. Not once or twice, but over and over and over and over again. I honestly don’t remember if the sound was up or not. I only remember crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash. By the end of the day, I’ll bet I’d watched that few seconds of video over a hundred times. I knew that there were only two crashes, however horrific they were. But on an emotional level, there might as well have been a hundred or more. It was exhausting.
Since then I’ve asked myself the same question every time there’s been a major disaster: Is it a good idea for us to become consumed with any of these events to the exclusion of everything else?
I’ve easily seen the Boston bombs go off 30 times or more since they actually did, from different angles, recorded by any number of cell phones and other video recorders. It may not be as shocking as the jets barreling into the Twin Towers, but it’s right up there. I want to look away, but even the thought makes me feel both unpatriotic and like a traitor to the people of Boston. And I worry about missing some real news. I know I’ve been watching rehashing and re-rehashing of the same information for hours, but that doesn’t mean something vital won’t come up in the next five minutes. So I keep watching. It’s the proverbial train wreck writ large – no, huge.
In the old days, the networks would break in to regular programming with breaking news bulletins. Rarely did they stick with a story for hours or days on end. It gave us all a break, so we weren’t drowning in the bad news. It was also logical because most stories do not provide constant action. Once we have the basics, updates will keep us as posted as we need to be.
OK, I’ll admit my perspective is skewed, being the MSNBC junkie that I am. I know I can change the channel or queue up last week’s episode of Modern Family for relief. It’s 2013, after all, and the 24-hour news cycle is the standard. It’s up to us to give ourselves a break. I’m going to try and I hope you do, too.
This might sound heartless to some, but I haven’t watched ANY of the Boston coverage. I heard about it, called my 2 good friends there to see if they’re ok and that was it. Yes – it’s horrible – of course. But what good will it do for me to watch hours & hours of coverage? I literally do not have any more space in my brain for tragedy. After Columbine, 9/11 (the worst day of my life that changed EVERYTHING), the Denver movie theater and Sandy Hook, I can’t take any more evil, devastating news that I simply cannot wrap my brain around.
I love your point about the 24 hour news cycle, Chris. Why do we need it? People got informed sufficiently when JFK was shot and countless other events happened “back in the day.” We live in a fear-based culture and re-traumatizing the American public over & over is not helping. But – maybe – just maybe – if we stop watching for 24 hours, they’ll stop running the same footage for 24 hours.
Chris, nice post as usual. I believe it’s unhealthy to stay too focused on the death-and-destruction stuff. My test for tuning out: If I’m not learning anything new, it’s time to stop watching.
And, as usual, we’re on the same page, Jim. Luckily, I’ve got lots to read and lots of movies already DVR’d.