The News Suffers from Mad Cow Disease: Just Call Me a Peacenik Please

Washington cherry blossoms in full bloom framing the Washington Monument: Glynn Wilson

The Big Picture –
By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. — There is a desperation coming through over the airwaves that is making people sick.

It’s no wonder so many people in the United States have stopped paying attention to news, and that includes me. It’s all just too much.

Too much sensationalism. Too much clickbait. I must say it is liberating to not have to worry anymore about chasing traffic for Google ads.

It’s just one threat after another that would make just about anyone go back to bed and curl up in the fetal position and give up on life. It’s no wonder the suicide rate is off the charts. Where’s the damn morphine?

But if you turn off the television, get away from the internet and especially social media and step outside, the sun is shining and spring is in the air. The birds are still singing out there. The cherry blossoms will still bloom in March.

Yes, the weather is strange in California, and a massive wildfire is still burning in Texas. The glaciers are indeed melting.

And Donald Trump is still a threat to democracy.

But at least people are not trapped in their houses hiding from an incurable virus spreading around the globe.

People are traveling again, and maybe they are over reacting to the official end of the pandemic and traveling too much. We don’t seem to have learned much from it. People are now back to driving too much, and in crazy ways that threaten everyone else on the road.

Many people are simply assholes, made more so by a former president who makes them think they should all be liars and assholes like he is.

Look no further than the case of Brandon Craig Fellows, 29, of Schenectady, New York, who was found guilty by a jury in D.C. and sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison by a judge this past week.

Defiant Trump Supporter Who Sparred with Judge Sentenced to More Than Three Years in Federal Prison

Monkey see. Monkey do.

I could do an entire dissertation on the problems of the media today and human evolution. But I’ve already done that. I would rather go for a hike.

So let me just point out one story making the rounds that makes me crazy, and I’m sure other people too. Let’s call it a form of Mad Cow disease.

When I woke up Saturday morning and turned on the TV, the CBS news feature crew was covering this insane story as if it was the real reason for the new war in the Middle East.

“The unlikely role red cows play in war between Israel and Hamas.”

“The conflict in Gaza is now entering its sixth month, but the Oct. 7 rampage that started it all remains fresh in many minds. One trigger for the violence has been widely overlooked. Meet the sacred red heifers recently brought to Jerusalem.”

This is one reason why I’ve never covered the ancient war in the region between the Jews and the Palestinians. Both sides are crazy as far as I’m concerned. Religious nuts all.

But if you criticize the Jews, even the right-wing Zionists in Israel like Benjamin Netanyahu, some will just call you an anti-semite. If you criticize the Palestinians and their armed groups like Hamas, some would you call you an Islamophobe.

What do you call people who just want the wars to stop?

Maybe a “peacenik?” OK. I’ll go with that.

See you down the trail.

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