Good news/bad news

Good News – Bad News

In George Orwell’s anti-utopian novel 1984, the inhabitants of Oceana are relentlessly exposed to the changing of their language. Instead of English, there is Newspeak; no longer is there a need for words like “horrible, awful, terrible, hideous,” and the like; “doubleplusungood” will suffice. Part of the influence of Newspeak on Oceana is seen in the use of Doublethink, especially in the threefold motto “War is Peace—Love is Hate—Freedom is Slavery“

Orwell wrote his novel at a time when at least half the world had a totalitarian regime, where every word allowed for public consumption was controlled by the government. We, however, live in a country where the press is free from such control. In a bit of remarkable irony, it is now the press who engages in newspeak and doublethink by continuously perpetrating the motto “Bad News is Good News.”

As we read the headlines from the Associated Press regarding Iraq, it is a nonstop barrage of bad news. Roadside bombs kill three US Soldiers. or US death toll now approaching 2000. Readers might never know that anything good was happening in Iraq. It would be as if someone would only read in the papers that lots of people get murdered in Detroit, therefore it must be unsafe to live in the war zone known as southeast Michigan.

Why does the press continue to report all the bad “news that’s fit to print?” Simply put, bad news will cause an erosion of America’s support for the war, and an erosion of support for President Bush’s policy. So a few thousand aging, burned-out hippies and liberal collegiates converged on the capital this weekend, and it makes headlines. The majority of supporters of the troops are too busy leading productive lives, raising families, helping hurricane victims, volunteering in their church and community, and contributing to a bustling economy and paying taxes.

Test the “bad news is good news” theory elsewhere. When hurricane Katrina hit, every death, every mistake was painted as though it were Bush’s fault, or that he didn’t care, or that he was racist. Or take economic news. Nationwide, the economy is in great shape. Unemployment is (pre-Katrina) at a lower level than at any time during the Clinton presidency. The economy is growing at a rate of 3.3%, a much healthier rate than that of any other country in the world. Inflation is in check. But the only economic news anyone hears is that gas prices are going through the roof, so Bush’s policies are a miserable failure.

It is really pathetic that the media will put the political gain of the democratic party ahead of the country’s good. That’s what happens when you actually hope for bad news—you hope for American casualties in Iraq, you hope for chaos in New Orleans, you hope for people to lose their jobs—all because you want people to blame Bush, and if they do, then there will be a change of political power and just maybe, we’ll be looking at another Clinton presidency in 2008.

Good news is bad news? Sounds a lot like Satan to me. The good news of Jesus’ victory over sin and death, announced and proclaimed by his resurrection and joyfully celebrated each week by believers everywhere, is really bad news for Satan. That’s why he tries to distort it and attack it and undermine it wherever and whenever he can. It's why he convinces so many people that to become a Christian means that you give up all fun, become self-righteous and judgmental, instead of enjoying the freedom and peace of forgiveness of sins in Christ.

Look for other examples of Bad news = good news in the media and include them in your comments this week.