Why does the media insist on putting such a negative spin on everything?

I dunno! I hate it too, that’s why i hate the media’s sorry news stories. Negative and bad events seem to attract more attention for some reason – that’s a strange one too. Like when there’s a fender bender on the side of the road – i’m sure you know what kind of traffic jam that causes because everybody wants to stare at it!

…or there’s 30% saying they’ve got no opinion. But also, I don’t really consider this as a negative spin, because as a president you’d really hope for more than 50% support. (Of course, sometimes/often presidents have to do things their citizens aren’t content with, but still, 50% is very little.)

I did find it very curious how negative foreign press was about the Dutch performance in the world cup finals though ;-)

Bad news sells better than good news. Unless it is really good news.

People like to watch America’s Most Wanted, but would anyone watch America’s Most Wonderful People? Hell, no. Most people are negative and relate to negative things, sorry to say. Maybe the media should spend just one day giving nothing but good news all day and see what happens.

$

@tinyfaery I see your $, and $$$

@Vincentt The thing is, people tend to follow the crowds. Of those 50% who don’t like Obama’s handling of it, probably only 10% could actually tell you why, and the other 40% are just going along with the ride and repeating what ever BS they hear from other people, without bothering to verify the facts. I get people telling me all the time how much they hate Obama, but the only reasoning they can give me is all the BS that’s been totally disproven, (Not American, Muslim, blah blah blah.)

@Dutchess_III True. Not a reason not to report it, in my opinion.

No one buys a newspaper that is jolly. People buy newspapers because they want to read about dramatic news. Happiness is not dramatic. Also, a headline like that allows both sides of America’s politics to either feel smugly content or to become irate at the situation, both which increase the chances of the person buying the paper. As with many things in life, it all comes down to money.

@dynamicduo I wasn’t thinking so much about negative things, but more along the lines of bias, which the news is not supposed to be.

@Dutchess_III Back when I was in high school, I had a class in journalism. We were taught to never interject our opinion in any report. Facts only, or we would get an “F” on our paper. These days every reporter has their own opinion on everything, I get sick of it, I don’t want their opinion, just the facts and I will form my own opinion.

I agree @RANGIEBABY. I guess the point of this post is, “Ok. It’s a fact that 50% of the people don’t like how Obama was handling the BP oil spill.” But it’s also a fact that 50% DO approve of his handling of it. Why did they choose to present the negative “fact”?

@Dutchess_III Or in other words: it’s about impossible not to have an opinion being reflected through wording.

@Vincentt This is true. But I think this consistent bashing of Obama is harmful to this country. He’s a good president, but a minority of the people of the country, even those who brag about having brains, have suddenly turned into racist, violent rednecks. They’re all blindly jumping on the bandwagon, and the media isn’t helping.

@Dutchess_III The media loves to stir the pot, however blindly jumping on the bandwagon, I am not so sure. I would hope people are searching out their own answers before making their decisions. I could care less what the media says, I make my assessment on what the individual in question is saying. Not only saying with his/her mouth, but with eyes and body language as well. And then see the action of that individual.

@Dutchess_III It could also be (I don’t follow US media so I wouldn’t know) that (seemingly) Obama bashing is just more noticeable to you :) Whenever a particular media outlet e.g. phrases potentially negative actions by the president less harshly, you might just read over it.

Likewise, you might’ve just been led to think there is an enormous increase in the amount of racist violent rednecks all of a sudden due to what media you prefer tell you.

Sometimes I think the media aren’t so much trying to influence our opinions as they are telling their target audiences what they want to hear. In other words, the media doesn’t shape the public opinion but public opinion (in all its variety) shape the media.

They want to please their shareholders. Bloody news are easier to sell. And people get the wrong impression about the state of the world. Unless they use multiple independent sources.