This morning I read Politiholic’s quixotic blog post asking people to “Stop the Doom Mongering.”  

Nisha is spot on, but the hope that the media will be provide fair and objective reporting is a bit idealistic.   I hate to sound like a pessimist, but this is one category where I have a definite opinion.

I was in an airport food court, sipping a soda when an ABC News Crew arrived on the scene.  The foodcourt was crowded and the News Crew started asking individuals if they were waiting for a delayed flight.  I was the eighth person they asked, and I was happy to report that my flight had landed on time and I was just waiting for a ride.  They thanked me and moved on.  

Finally after asking at least six more people, they found someone who was waiting for a delayed flight.  I listened to the interview.  I’ll paraphrase:

We are reporting from a busy foodcourt where due to the weather, many people are waiting  for delayed flights.  They interviewed the family who was waiting.  The family reported that the flight they were waiting for was delayed at least an hour and that they were going to be late for some family event.

I wanted to jump up and shout, “But almost all of the flights are on time.  You are giving a biased view of the situation.”  It wouldn’t have mattered.  The media defined the story and then looked until they found an interview to corraborate. 

There’s lots of good news right now.  Example: my mom’s company, Zayo Group, is hiring CU Grad students for intern positions and they just got $129 million in funding to do m&a activity.  You’d think the media would be all over that type of good news.  But they aren’t.  It’s just like the good news that I had in the airport … the media didn’t want to hear it.

Unfortunately, I believe that the Fear Mongering is wrecking our country.  Until they’ve had an experience like mine, people believe what they hear.