As a fan of the Good News Roundup, I have been inoculated against despair daily by an amazing team of writers, led by Goodie. After getting my dose today, an observation nagging at me all week came into focus. Politics with a small “p” is not news to most media outlets. Good news is news, but doesn’t get as wide a play as bad news (the more violence and sex involved, the better).
But this week, around Monday, a tipping point was reached. Many tipping points, actually. Assumptions are falling like rain, and major media outlets are scrambling to get wet. All from subtle things, but important things, happening in the zeitgeist. Like many other tipping points of this kind, it started with death and violence on our screens (TV and computer) — but morphed into a rippling of consciousness raising on a global scale like seeing the Berlin Wall come down.
When not-news (in the cynical sense) spreads so fast and so far that major media change their angle, a tipping point is revealed. A week ago was cops vs. looters. Monday Trump and Cotton pushed the line too far, enabled by Barr and other yahoos. Their actions — and, more significantly, their inactions — brought a response tidal in nature and impossible to capture in journalistic reports.
This week? That could be the best kind of news of all.
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