Animals in the News

On CNN this morning:

After a snippet on a shark bite in South Carolina and before a segment about kittens rescued from somewhere near the brakes of a car (and then coverage of a K-9 being honored) was yet another alligator attack story. (No other stories–just animals.)

My sister, who is a TV and radio journalist, noted that whenever there’s a choice between a story about a human (and it’s not pressing news) and an animal, they will always choose the animal.

"People love animals," she said.

No they don’t.

But they do love stories about them that help them decide what to think. Alligators? Vicious (meanwhile, we constantly encroach on their territory, and some people even feed them, so is it any wonder that there have been attacks?). Sharks? Vicious (meanwhile, sharks rarely attack; they usually mistake a person’s limb for food and move on). Birds? Disease-ridden (sure, mostly because of how we farm them and mistreat them).

I just hope that viewers don’t take the news as gospel, and research for themselves why we have the problems we appear to have with the nonhuman animal world.