I was looking at an article on the CTV website today about the police arresting the suspected Moncton shooter. The article itself was appropriate and well written despite the subject matter, what surprised me was the other media displayed on the same page. On the side of the page showed other popular videos and articles. Among them were a video of a cat that survived a flood, and a video entitled "The MJ The World Didn't See".
I was surprised and shocked by these. It makes me sad to think that our society values news about a cat and Michael Jackson at the same level as a horrific tragedy such as this.
I checked on other sites to see if it would be the same. Globe and Mail was even worse. The most popular videos were about Rihanna wearing a scandalous dress, Rob Ford doing something idiotic, and Channing Tatum defending Jonah Hill over 'gay' accusations. I was equally disturbed.
News is not a tabloid, and should be held to a higher standard. For every hard-hitting article, there is an idiotic fluff piece to "compliment" it. Celebrity gossip should be left to 17 Magazine and cat videos should be left for Youtube. If these kinds of stories start dominating the news there will be no way for us to learn about the parts of our culture that can be viewed as shocking or disturbing. I'm sure most people would love to watch a cute video of a cat rather than one about a police shooting, but in the end which is more important for us to know? Why is the top Canadian trend on twitter about Orange The New Black premiering on Netflix and not about a recent tragedy in our own country?
I'm tired of our society worshipping that kind of trash and ignoring important issues. The news should be trash-free, but instead it is now cluttered with it.
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