You are facing an existential crisis: do you stop watching the news on TV immediately or continue to watch it at your own peril? He is unable to decide on the best course of action. Some of his friends, why his own wife also on many occasions, have been advising him not to strictly watch the news channels. Because, they think, it has been very negative with everything, and, in essence, why continue to be a silent witness to the reports of how many millions have been infected with the virus and how many thousands have succumbed to it. He affects you in the wrong way, discourages and depresses you, they add with more emphasis. But how can he just give up on the news? He has to keep up with the local, national, and world scene for his information, understanding, and possibly analysis, particularly in this pandemic situation. And what are the alternatives? He still doesn’t get the newspapers from him and quickly gets tired of reading electronic newspapers. His mind spins.
Some friends even posted on social media, proudly informing others that they had stopped watching news feeds. He is disturbed. He reasons: all the channels are not that loud or that bad, and for a change, they show extremely important content; he is intellectually intelligent enough to decipher the news from the opinions inherent in it; and just like at a buffet party, he can pick and choose the items he needs. Yes, he had already discarded the channels with the towering lunatics with the even more demonic companions of his. He has clung to this new normal, with a kind of self-conscious pride, until those stories surfaced with the telltale signs of him and left him dumbstruck, gasping for a breath of clarity or comfort.
He is puzzled, truly, genuinely. Why did the news channels suddenly switch to the stories of two lovely ladies, at a time when the virus has been on the rise and reaching record levels of infections and deaths across their miserable country? Maybe, he reasons, they too wanted a change from the dreary setting, and maybe they wanted to earn a few more bucks by putting together delicious dishes on sale at the buffet. He is still perplexed and angry – all the lessons, advice and ideas he has learned from the channels have almost been wasted, because the same preaching channels have shown how desperate they are for the two beautiful ladies, denying themselves in the observance of all the rules of social distancing in its mad rush to welcome those ladies, in all its glory and in detail that breaks exhaustively. He, basically an honest person, is disgusted with the media uproar that kept being generated day after day as the stories and tales of the beautiful ladies unfolded.
His depth of perplexity deepens even more, trying to make clear his personal position regarding the intricate histories of the two actors. She respects and adores both of them: the first as the affectionate girlfriend of the dead actor, a rising star, whom she also loved on the big screen; the second she always loved seeing her on the big screens, particularly because of the eccentric portrayals of her in her movies. Now, in her real life acts, she can’t decide who to support, oppose or hate.
The first case confuses him. He fails to understand why the family of the dead actor in his home state decided to complain about his girlfriend after almost a month of his tragic but apparent suicide in the destination state. However, what follows interests him more. The ruling dispensation of the home state has overwhelmingly thrown itself in support of the family, making it arguably the most powerful in the land, apart perhaps from the dynastic ones. The news channels, dismissed by him, also came in with cacophonous groveling support, and the chief accuser and towering lunatic of one particular channel began their investigations, and condemned the poor girl before anyone else, with her jeering followers clapping their hyenas. . -like ecstasy. After a series of confrontations, cross accusations and court verdicts, three main investigative agencies began their operations, showing unprecedented haste. His final arrest was hailed as vindication by all who supported him and condemned as vindictive by all who opposed. The problem for him is that he also respects the investigative agencies, for their experience of all the years of his existence in his miserable country, and is unable to decide who is the culprit, really.
Before the news channels took a breather from the first case, the second lady burst onto the scene, without much foreplay. She deliberately accused the people and government of the target state, where she herself lives and earns, of unspeakable things, even comparing it to an eternal enemy nation. The abominable things she uttered should, ideally, hurt the feelings of both the ruling dispensation of the target state and the other interested parties in her wretched country; however, while the ruling administration of the target state reacted vehemently, coming out, as major stakeholders expected, with its knee-jerk ‘punishment’ measures, major stakeholders decided to provide the maximum possible security for an actor. The sheer violation of the rules that followed at the airport where both supporters and opponents and, of course, the media gathered in large numbers for the actor’s arrival, made him angry. The news channels, discarded by him, worsened the uproar by announcing the strongest support for the beautiful lady and crying for the blood of the authorities of the target state.
Two ladies: one continually harassed and finally imprisoned, because her guilt has not yet been conclusively proven; and the other lady who said disgustingly anti-parliamentary things was made a hero. Of course, he is not so naive and gullible. As for the ‘persecution’ case, he clearly sees that the home state ruling dispensation has indisputable electoral gains to be made from their dead ‘son of earth’ actor and the main stakeholder has a revenge angle on the destination state where he had suffered a great betrayal from his traditional partner. Looking at the ‘greeting’ case, he can see that the main stakeholder is willing to make a breakthrough to take revenge on the target state. In any case, the two lovely ladies continue to pursue him.
However, his basic existential crisis has yet to be resolved: continue or stop watching news on television. Well, there’s no rush, at least in your own case. In the meantime, you can continue with your new normal adaptation, except for the occasional sneaks on channels discarded just out of curiosity, as you normally indulge. But he is sure of one thing: the news channels, together with their governments, must put the focus back on the real crisis. And his final decision would rest squarely on this.