Politics Affect on Media

Several months ago spanning all the way back to the middle of 2003, all you would hear about on the news was the war in Iraq or Jon Stewart so cleverly calls it MessO'Potamia. Everyday we would hear the death total count, something new happening with Uday or Qusay (remember them, the perished sons of Saddam), or some new rebel faction starting some sectarian violence in the outskirts of Baghdad. While the war in Iraq is still going on and troops are still deployed their and sectarian violence is still going on, the media seems to have picked up upon a "new" hot topic, "The Greening of America." The topic of going green has recently been everywhere all over every media outlet. TV, radio, newspapers, all have been running center piece articles or prime time specials dedicated to this hot topic & consequently media time dedicated to Iraq has lessened.

I would think that this really got a jump start several months ago with the Al Gore power point lecture, "An Inconvenient Truth." The movie and the book it is based on and the countless number of scientific reports have pushed this issue to the forefront of America's and the World's agenda. An even prior to this the whole ethanol issue was going pretty strong about year ago as well. But is this really new information? Haven't we always been aware of our destructive behavior towards the earth and how driving big SUVs and not recycling is bad? Many other westernized countries have been practicing greener living for several years now. One first hand example I can relate to is Belgium. While living their recycling was a top priority. We had separate trash, excuse me I mean recycling bags for glass, hard plastics, aluminum, left over food, paper, and an everything else container, called the remnants bag. The process was not that simple either. Everything had to be sorted. You had to uphold your civic responsibility of organizing and separating your trash. The time needed for this is not that much and the rewards I would imagine must be worth the time put in. Also, you can get fined for not practicing proper recycling. I was lucky to experience this extreme green living. I say extreme because Belgium prides itself on having the greenest style of living. Now back to living here, why haven't we already followed in the footsteps of countries like Belgium and start forcing our citizens to recycle. Is it so much of a valued right to have the ability to throw trash wherever one might please as long as it in some type of receptacle.

Back to the topic at hand, why has the issue only so very recently grabbed the attention of America's top media sources? Recently, the Democrats have once again taken control of Congress (The House clearly leans in favor of the Dems but the Senate it is actually split 49:49 with 2 independents). They came in with many initiatives to help change America. Raising the minimum wage, a non-binding resolution (what crap is this), and making America cleaner to name a few. Could it be a coincidence that with Congress back in control of the Democrats that the news media now is paying more attention to America becoming green? I think not. As explained before, most of the information we have today has been known for quite some time. The Doomsday clock being pushed ahead and the meeting of top scientist in Paris to discuss global warming are of recent news and these events have furthered the cry for action adding more credibility to the facts we have already known. I truly believe that the change in party majority of Congress has greatly influenced our media's choices on what to report on. Everyday now it is "How to become Green" "Getting Greener" and other cheesy titles revolving around the color green and Kermit the frog. Next time you are reading your favorite paper or open up to your regular news website you will undoubtedly see something about turning green.

I am glad that this topic is being handled more frequently by the media since I am all for a cleaner world and believe we should start adapting processes to help this cause. It is a tragedy that we had to wait for the Democrats to take back Congress and Al Gore to lecture us (good thing the Supreme Court doesn't agree that the most votes win an election) for the media to step up and help promulgate this topic.