Those who control the media…

…are filling it with bad messages and images. In other words, bad news.

Or…is it that they are reflecting the bad messages and images rampant in the culture right now?

All I know is that one evening’s worth of news coverage was just filled with negative, bad and distressing stories. Filled. That was last evening, the one evening I quit working early to catch the evening’s news coverage. Odds are that, even in a world of problems, there should be at least some news of intellectual grist. Something to debate or consider.

But not on this outing. All bad news, all the time. On every channel I tried. When the major news networks (especially cable) had too much sleaze and crime and political backbiting to take, I even switched to the Animal Planet, for crying out loud. And even that channel had features of animal abuse and brutality that I (and our dogs) couldn’t take. Our TV watching dog kept barking at the screen. She’s smart.

So why am I ventilating?

Some of this is unavoidable. These are times when shooters are walking into malls and opening fire on Christmas shoppers, into churches and opening fire on worshippers coming for services. They are killing innocent people and themselves. The insanity that visited the Amish in Nickel Mines and the students at Virginia Tech continues. We all know somebody should do something. Get more guards? Well, yes, for one thing. That’s why the armed security guard at the church in Colorado Springs was able to stop the gunman before he killed more people. She was amazingly heroic. In the press conferences, she says she just kept praying to God and asked the Holy Spirit to be with her.

Then this morning, Fox News carried the story of an atheist who finally won a long fought lawsuit demanding the local police force chaplains to remove the cloth badge sewn onto the side of their jackets because it has a cross behind the symbol of the town.

This intermingling of hate and violence, with prayer….the determination to stop evil, with determination to stop Christian symbolism, is jarring.

But…I refuse to be discouraged.

We control our exposure to the news now more than ever, with internet technology, websites and blogs and mp3 abililty to select what we want to hear, and how and when. This blog links to good news sources and to other blogs, which link to endless other reliable good resources. Christmas is the season of hope, but many people are lonely and afraid and feeling despair. Take people good news. There’s plenty of it out there, no matter where the media decide to focus their lens and pens.