Ranting!

[Lemming13]

I just had to get this off my chest. I was on the website for my local newspaper this morning. It's a poor specimen at best of times but today they really made me angry. The story was titled 'Can Hairdressing Students Help Get Over the Horrors of Lockdown Haircuts?' The story itself I don't have too much issue with - apparently hairdressing students at local colleges are offering free haircuts now they are back at their education. It's just describing a bad amateur haircut as 'horror' under circumstances where people have been isolated, cut off from families, plunged into terrible depression or had existing mental health problems worsened, and let's not forget, DIED - well, to me that's disrespectful, ignorant and shallow. And I can't even email them and say so because they get so many complaints they no longer have an online contact form.
Done ranting now. Sorry.

[susanwayne]

Perfectly legitimate rant in my opinion. In your example, you cannot in all good consciousness, equate the two.

It would appear that your local paper is following mainstream media's (written, TV and Radio) examples. Instead of something being of mild note, everything is extreme. I think that is part of the reason people are beginning to ignore what they are hearing and reading. To any thinking person, it's impossible for everything to be so extreme.

I don't think a lot of people read anything other than the catchy headline and that's what they take away as the news. Buried in paragraph three or four of the article are the facts, stated in much less exaggerated terms. The problem is that they don't bother to read 'all that'.

That type of headline reminds me of the Enquirer newspaper that many used to laugh at when seeing the first page headlines. Two headed baby born to Mid-West couple? Open to page 4 and you find out that twins were born.

So your paper is following the norm of what passes as journalism these days.

Aren't you glad that you have this site where you can politely rant and get it off your chest!

[knitter131]

Lemming13 I totally agree with everything susanwayne says, especially that this is a safe place to feel free to rant if you need friends to listen 😊

[FreedomLover]

I agree with this, printed news is having a hard time staying in business so everything must be shocking or outrageous, when most things are not, in fact, shocking or outrageous.

[qfknit]

FreedomLover - your analysis is Shocking! Your observation, Outrageous!
Much like the Brazen attempt of the President, to speak at a (gasp) Graduation... or hold a Rally! Newsworthy as the defiant people attempting to attend... in-person Services at places of worship...! Or family Weddings... Or loved ones' Funerals! The media foists SHAME on make-do DIY haircuts, healthy relationships, and truthful communications under the "new normal."

Meanwhile, CHAZ/CHOP and other riots are merely a peaceful protest... nothing to see here, folks!
This (ho-hum, yawn) bloodbath, ransacking, looting, burning, beating, raping, and monument-toppling is not newsworthy.

I encourage people to sign up to receive regular government communications... for example, governor press releases, notices of pending legislation at the local, state, and national level. Notify your elected officials of your views on legislation, laws, public policy which would make the current right-is-wrong/wrong-is-right changes permanent. For example, rather than "if you see something, say something" ... there are proposed laws up for vote which would enable a suspect to sue anyone who called the police, causing the police to contact them (the suspect)!

[susanwayne]

knitter131 Lemming13 Amen to that! Not that we object to differing thoughts or opinions, it's just that we can be civil in our discourse and...tada...listen to each other. I for one hope that this site remains this way.

[lovestostitch]

I think people's nerves are on edge and they are triggered by different things, depending on their experiences through the lock down. Personally, I would have interpreted that headline as being light hearted and it would have conjured up pictures of bad home hair cuts I've done or seen. There have been quite a few media mentions of lack of hair cuts and coloring throughout the lock down. I know the mayor of Chicago got a lot of bad press because she got an illegal haircut. Her excuse was that she had to be on television. I've also seen joking comments on Facebook about bad coronavirus hair cuts.

Newscasters broadcasting from their basements had a lot of fun with basement jokes and having their dogs in their laps. They were being light hearted but it doesn't mean they were minimizing the severity of the pandemic. I think it can be even more depressing to only concentrate on sickness and death. When I think about isolating like this for the long term, it is a bleak picture. I don't mind funny stories about bad home haircuts or seeing dogs on the newscasters' laps. Those little moments of levity brighten my boring day.

[Lemming13]

I don't mind them being light-hearted and trying to lift the mood, but when that story was listed alongside '9 care home residents die of Covid-19' and 'Family home burned to ground after arson attack' I just think they should be more sensitive in how they say what they say.

[susanwayne]

qfknit That's my laugh for the day! Thanks.