On November 8, 2016 - the long watched over Presidential Elections will finally be over. After more than a year of covering these elections from the candidate announcements to the primary’s, the National Conventions, the debates, the polls, and everything else under the sun. It seems that every prominent news channel works around the clock in only covering the elections, and nothing but that. It is like nothing else in American news matters in the world except who will in.
So here are my questions? After the elections are over, and the American people are done embarrassing themselves so easily. What will we do? What will we cover? And how will we be able to assimilate to post-election news coverage all over again? I am asking these questions because although the nation has experienced the post-election process, I am not sure the nation has dealt with elections while having a civil crisis that is currently uprising. After speaking to my peers, and wondering what they wanted to be discussed, we all came to an agreement of what we would hope Fox, CNN, MSNBC and so forth will cover.
Sitting in Starbucks, I felt like it was the best place gather opinions and hopeful wishes from educated individuals. What I discovered, “I feel like the media has forgotten about what is important in this world, ad would rather focus on weak news that do not strike fear in the people of the United States," said Daniela Garcia.
What I hope for, after these elections come to a close and whoever the losing candidate is, stops their temper tantrum. Is that we go back to focusing on global and domestic issues that have ruined our world. The media has decided to cover the elections so much that it is like we have created a bubble, within the nation and nothing else matters. Nothing matters, such as the Boko Haram women hostages going home, it does not matter that Iraqi forces with the help of nearby states are finally regaining Mosul to Iraq. The media has forgotten to mention that there is a new President put into office in Lebanon after a never-ending process to vote one in. Rather the main focus has been on celebrities supporting candidates or the findings of Clinton’s email and Trump’s taxes.
The media has forgotten to mention that the Black Lives Movement is growing, getting stronger as an International Movement, that the movement has finally been fed up with the wrongful murders of black men throughout the nation. Which ties in with the rise of white supremacists and acts of crime against non-whites. The "unbiased" CNN is forgetting that there are arrests happening as protestors are peacefully trying to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, or that new Climate Change laws have been placed internationally, even though majority of this nation's politicians see it as a hoax. As well as forgetting the new states that may now introduce the passing of medicinal marijuana. Or how about the fact that the nation of Colombia is voting to opt out of a peace treaty with the FARC Group. The process of trying to impeach South African President Jacob Zuma. The death of the King of Thailand. The Venezuelan nation collapsing. The advancement of Putin’s Russia and its alliance with Assad in Syria. The Civil War in Syria that is about to reach 6 years. The rise of ISIL recruitment from foreigners due to the rise of Islamophobia.
The biggest refugee crisis since World War 2 is in full effect because of millions fleeing from prosecution in their nations. Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and more have failed their citizens. How the nation of France is trying to integrate their new refugees into the rest of the society. How Macedonia, Turkey, and Greece are still under the struggle of figuring out what to do with millions of new refugees, and the influx of more daily. Or how the United States is refusing to welcome in more asylum-seekers that are now stateless and hopeless.
These are just some of the issues that need to be covered by the media. They require immediate attention and to be spoken about daily with updates. You may be asking why does any of this even matter to us? Well, the United States must be involved because we have taken it upon ourselves to proclaim the USA as the global police. Not to mention that the United States is desperately failing in trying to be the global hegemony - not a surprise. The media is not only an incredible joke now, but it is extremely disappointing. It is just another reason as to why I am ashamed of this country and what it titles as “news.” After the joke of the elections are over, one could only hope that the issues that really matter are as relevant as Trump’s twitter page or his dream of a border-wall.
However, I will continue in gathering my information from the millennial approved, VICE channel and so many other channels, that focus on substance.
