Emotional Sensationalism: Lets Take A Road Less Traveled!

The Road Not Taken

By Robert Frost

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference."

We are inundated daily with a myriad of "news worthy" stories that pull us in this direction and that direction. Often it is almost impossible to get to the essence of any particular subject as we see politicians, news media, and a cast of thousands, no millions, drag us into an emotional abyss of sensational stories, challenges and issues of the moment. Far too often, the root issue gets lost as a result because we immediately get sucked into a labyrinth of rhetoric and caustic debate, generally at the expense of finding the truth in between.

We need to do better. We need to get out of the emotional and sensational weeds and use our intellect to assess, address and find solutions to the challenges, any challenge, or issues before us. Let’s not lose sight of how those who use emotional sensationalism do so for some form of advantage or gain. Politicians at every level, every party, and every interest group yank at our emotional strings with an intent of obfuscating the issues, fueling our emotions and maximizing agenda to advantage for any particular gain they desire, not the essence of the issues. News media unfortunately do the same, present from and emotional sensationalism approach to gain ratings, not to push for the essence of the news, not to inform, rather to lead us down this path or that based on the emotional nature of how they present what they consider the news. Interest group x,y or z has figured this out as well and look at all the really brilliant emotional diatribes you see on every social media site, large and small. Do you think any of these really care any more about presenting newsworthy stories, about creating open and frank discussion and debate? Or are we content with continuing down a well beaten path of emotional sensationalism in the news targeting our emotions knowing that by doing so they will drive the moment and influence our ability to collectively think in an intelligent manner? Are we content with others driving us in this direction or that direction because we are a mass of mindless knuckleheads? Are we content with allowing an approach that creates an environment where ultimately we lose control and influence? How about we take a path less traveled?

Yep, I get it. Emotional and sensational issues happen every day in our lives. How bout we do something different for a change. Truly look at the issues, understand them, accept the fact that we all have differences of opinion on things and take back the dialogue, take back the news, take back the agenda and do so without the emotional sensationalism that many are using to herd all us simpletons into oblivion through distraction and irrelevant sensational manipulation. I personally think that each of us, collectively, are much much smarter than that.

Now before everyone starts piling on with the caustic rhetoric and bantering just take a second and think about it all, think beyond the moment and the easy opportunity to bash me for being naive and of the ilk that leans one way or another. I watch the discussions on this site and many others and how they immediately denigrate into the abyss of emotional and sensational diatribes that lose site of the real issues. I get it, there are different sides to each story, but come on. We are smarter than that.

Let’s take back our intellectual agility. Let’s take back the ability to discuss issues in a civil manner through open, frank and worthwhile discussion. Let’s take back our world now and let’s collectively drive the future through openness and collegial debate and discussion. Let’s not fall prey to the emotional sensationalism that is dividing and conquering. Let’s drive the agenda for a better tomorrow.

Just a thought.