News Bias--The West Coast as Dante's Inferno

It is fascinating to see how each region portrays news events occurring in other parts of the country. It does give you pause to see the inherent bias--all for ratings--in the news, so that maybe the rabid Iraqis with fists up in the, air chanting for the downfall of America, covered nightly are not representative of the entire country.

For instance, the New England stations' descriptions about the West Coast fires feels like a post-modern rendering of Dante's Inferno. And yet, I know if I were in LA, the fires would be raging, covered assiduously and portentously by Paul Moyer--one of the most idiotic anchors ever--but the sense of foreboding and danger would feel far removed from the tree-lined street where we lived. Like everything else, 'those fires' raged somewhere else, places I've never been or had any desire to go. It's also fascinating how my allegiance has shifted--not a big surprise given my disdain for Los Angeles, the idea of, the reality of, the place itself. Whenever we get a snippet of the coverage of the West Coast fires, I watch it as everyone else across the country must watch it--mild interest, some clucking of the tongue in sympathy, but no more emotional investment since it is far removed from the reality of my current life.

And the fires is all I hear about--oh, yes, there is the new pay out by the Los Angeles Archdiocese for the sexual molestation cases, apparently the largest in the country. I'm certain LA news stations would cover the heat on the East Coast, making the rising temperatures and humidity seem as devastating as fires, drought, and mud slides--the cycles of doom that passes for weather in Los Angeles. The coverage would show fire hydrants opened, water spraying into car-lined streets as kids, mostly brown in hue, jumped and splashed, seeking relief from the oppressive heat. These pictures of urban life would be played and replayed across the nation, so that all anyone saw or remembered about the heat wave is that kids, mostly poor, living in high rises where poverty is stacked, sometimes 24 or 48 floors high, use water reserved for disasters as entertainment. Again, bias? Or not?

The news coverage in New England is much like local news everywhere else, inane, sometimes silly, and provincial. You know it's been a slow news day when a fallen tree on a house somewhere in Massachusetts warrants a segment. The anchors are not as tanned, their faces not as smooth as their counterparts in Los Angeles. Any reference to world news is always focused on how poorly the Iraq war is going, again showing those unforgettable pictures of Iraqis foaming at the mouth in rage against their occupiers--us.

This perspective of viewing the way our own country views the other parts of our own nation is telling. We are a nation of multiple views, perspectives, peoples. Regionalism reigns, and should given the sheer size of our country. If we were a country the size of Denmark then our national identity would be easily described, easily categorized. So, I turn on the news each day, noting how we, each region, tells the stories about our own country.