WILL THAULT: 24-hour TV news: There’s nothing to see here

OK. I get it. The coronavirus is spreading. Health experts agree that it’s going to get worse, before it gets better. How much worse or how soon better is the big mystery. So, faced with the unknown, what happens? Fear, followed by panic, followed by mass hysteria. We haven’t reached the tipping point of the latter two yet. Pray to God we don’t.

Calm, level-headed thinking can avoid that outcome, but we have another problem that’s throwing gasoline on the fire. It’s the news media – especially the 24-hour TV news channels. News has always been drawn to the sensational. (“If it bleeds, it leads.”) It sells papers and feeds ratings, the mother’s milk of the Fifth Estate. Once upon a time, in small doses (i.e., daily papers, half-hour nightly newscasts, etc.), it was more easily digested. That ended in the early 1980s. Then all hell broke loose! CNN was born. News 24-hours a day seemed like an innovative idea at the time. It allowed watching at the viewer’s convenience, rather than Walter Cronkite’s, who wrapped up the news each day in a mere 23 minutes (the rest of the half-hour was filled with commercials).

As with so many great ideas, unintentionally bad results were sure to follow. We didn’t stop watching our 24-hour news channel after a half-hour or even full hour of getting our daily dose of the news “at our convenience.” We wanted more. Like a kid who couldn’t stop playing a video game, because there was always the next level to reach, this constant stream of content became an addiction. The news channels had built their own traps, too. When you had 24 hours, seven days a week to fill, you somehow had to find ways to feed the monster. Hard TV news reporting from the far reaches of the world was too expensive to gather, so you needed political pundits, opinion columnists, celebrity lawyers, commentators, talking heads of all stripes ad nauseam to keep up the pace and keep you, the viewer, mesmerized. It’s exhausting just to think about.

So now, when a crisis hits, we can’t seem to pull ourselves away from the news or social media for a minute, thinking that we may miss out on something. After all, every five minutes or so, a spinning graphic shouts another BREAKING NEWS BULLETIN!, followed by dire headlines with words like DANGER, RISING DEATH TOLLS, and WORST CASE SCENARIO – “coming up right after this brief commercial break.”

I don’t know about you, but if I’m watching this stuff non-stop how can I remain calm when a hundred voices are constantly screaming the proverbial “FIRE” in a crowded theater.

How do we cope? First we need to discipline ourselves:

1. Turn off the TV News channel.

2. Limit social media.

3. Find something else to do to occupy the time.

I know, I know … No. 3 may seem to some an even scarier alternative. After all, burying our noses in the safety of our smart phones keeps us from suffering those occasional stares from others in the room, accompanied by awkward silence – momentarily forgetting our verbal communication skills. It’s OK. At first, we may be a little rusty, but it’ll come back to us. This extra freedom also gives us a chance to brush up on our reading skills and set aside time for prayer to the Lord. He offers something called faith to replace our fears. I have it on good authority that it works every time.

I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears. Psalm 34:4

Now, I don’t mean for us to go cold turkey on the news. A daily dose, in small measure, keeps us informed. Go local first. Read the local paper, watch our local TV newscast and throw in a half-hour of a national newscast for the big picture. As for social media, truth be told, an hour or less each day couldn’t do any harm either. It’s guaranteed that after a few days following this regimen, folks’ll find their nerves less frayed, a better perspective on life and, best of all, a calmer disposition.

This isn’t to minimize the challenge we’re facing with the coronavirus. It’s serious business, and we need to follow the commonsense advice of good hygiene, social distancing in crowds, watching for symptoms and getting tested and even quarantined if necessary. But let’s put this in perspective. If you’re at least 30 years old, you’ll remember that we not only faced the shock and aftermath of 9/11, but all these recent crises as well:

2000: Y2K

2001: Anthrax

2002: West Nile Virus

2003: SARS

2005: Bird Flu

2006: E Coli

2008: Bad Economy

2009: Swine Flu

2010: BP Oil Spill

2012: Mayan Calendar

2013: North Korea

2014: Ebola Virus

2015: ISIS

2016: Zika Virus

2020: coronavirus

So far, with the jury still out on this present crisis, we’ve somehow managed to overcome these obstacles one by one – not without suffering, but by ultimately bouncing back each time.

To be sure, I don’t view the world through rose-colored glasses, but I’m no Chicken Little either. The truth lies somewhere in between. To put it another way, we need to find a more balanced life. And all news, all the time certainly isn’t the pathway to serenity. The ultimate goal of the 24-hour news channels is nothing more than to sensationalize in order to gin up ratings, regardless of the collateral damage caused. At some point, we’ll have to stop rubber-necking at the train wreck and move along. We’ll have to get a grip. Stop obsessing with the media sensationalism, use some common sense and listen to our health authorities and community leaders. Dougherty County and the city of Albany issued a “shelter-in-place” order Friday. Follow the advisory, ignore the crazy rumors and stop letting the 24-hour news channels set our hair on fire. There are better ways to stay informed. When it’s all said and done, there’s really nothing to see here.