Why isn't there a news channel that reports all GOOD news??

Answer 1

It has often been said that "Good news doesn't sell"! What hasn't been said is "why"?

In my opinion, there are many of us who struggle every day, just to get by. The rich struggle with their business decisions and outsmarting their competition or finding creative ways to lessen their tax burden.

The poor struggle trying to find housing or the money to buy food or transportation or medical assistance.

Both the rich and the poor do things that they are proud of as well as things that they are not so proud of... in order to survive the day. At the end of the day... few of us are excited to hear about those who are better than us (or those who acted better than us or even those who achieved more than us).

For some, it can be a bit uplifting to know that there are others who are even worse off! When one has no self esteem, at least they know they are not alone. How often have we heard "misery loves company"?

The quickest way to fall into a deep state of depression is to beleive that the world is great and your neighbors and fellow citizens are great and you are a mess and a bad person or a bad decision maker.

The exception to this are heroes... everyone loves a hero and we love hearing about them! Growing up, we all loved our "Super Heroes" and we all tend to beleive that in certain situations, we could climb a tree to save a kitten or jump in the lake to save the drowning child or pull the injured person from the burning car (or home). Deep down inside, many romanticize about goodness (even when we cannot even put bread on the table or do good for our own families).

Aside from heroes, not too many of us like to hear that the kid from the next Town is now the CEO of HP or that the small business that was started in a garage (ten years ago) just became a franchise and is worth twenty million dollars!

Although I can empathize with this, I am from the opposite side of the coin. I hunger for good news. I have witnessed ordinary people doing extraordinary things to help others, yet receive no recognition.

Let an inner city kid break into the window of a home and burglarize it... and its on the six o'clock news. Let the same kid replace a broken window in a home (as a volunteer for HABITAT for HUMANITY) and you will never hear a word. An act of road rage makes the news all the time, but the person who stopped in the rain to change a tire for an elderly woman... will never be mentioned.

Many of us have heard of the book "The Greatest Generation". We have heard mention of specific excerpts on talk shows. In reality, that generation was no better than this. The exception is that they had a value system and they nurtured it as a society. They still had gangs (perhaps more than today). They had organized crime. God kows they had poverty and immigration problems and housing problems and all the shortcomings we have today. They chose not to dwell on the bad. They chose to rise above it an focus on the good.

Perhaps one big difference was the fact that small people did big things for the greater good and were amired by their neighbors and their peers. There was a passion for goodness. The pro-ballplayer that took the time to sign a kid's baseball was loved because he was humble and good (not just because he coud hit the ball). Even the movie industry alway slanted toward the "good guy" riding off into the sunset. The bad guy was never the the star of the show.

We need to nurture, acknowledge and reward goodness in our society. Although it must start within the family, it must be wittnessed and appreciated by other families as a role model. The media is the obvious resource for this important goal.


MS CT

Answer 2

Good news isn't as interesting as bad news. More people would rather tune in to watch a catastrophe than for a report on a family celebrating a birthday.

People just love bad news they are drawn to it. That is why traffic always slows down whenever there is a car wreck. There is a news website that has only good news on it. I thought it was a nice idea and started visiting it, only to realize that good news is boring. I'd provide the link but I've forgotten it.

Answer 3

The big channels only want to report the "bad news" because it sometimes gets sensationalized and creates a panic to watch more, good news is usually forgotten and is only reported on slow bad news days! Turn the TV off and see for yourself that if you don't know all the bad stuff, you have lots of good stuff all around you. you don't need the news to tell you about things.

Answer 4

As horrible as it is, Good News doesn't sell. Good News won't get you to turn the channel to their station. THAT'S why no news channel will ever have ALL good news.

Watch your local news channel tomorrow. The main story will be something tragic, while they do a small blurb on a local hero. It's sad really.

Answer 5

Because frankly it's not what people want to see. There's an old adage, "News is what someone somewhere doesn't want you to know. All the rest is advertising." People don't tune in to see good stuff, they (despite all their protests) crave scandal, violence, disaster, etc. The Olympics, all good news and commentary about global friendship and brotherhood, has record low ratings. But lwe all watch car chases, tornado warnings, hostage situations and let's not forget the disaster porn post-Katrina. The worse it is the more we have to look, just like a bad car crash on the side of the freeway.

Bottom line, bad news sells. Media is a business. They succeed by giving us what we want.

Answer 6

Because we as human beings tend to thrive on the misfortunes of others. Pain and war and suffering sell, happy stuff doesn't. If we want to change this, then we should all be calling up the news stations and saying "Hey, you know, I'm glad you're reporting all this stuff, but can you please throw in some positivie stuff as well? This way, we know that the human race isn't on a downhill slope and about to destroy itself."

Trust me, if they thought that kind of stuff would sell, they'd have no trouble finding positive stories.

Answer 7

Do you mean good as in happy? Cause that's what the MTV and SNL ones are for. If you mean you want the truth or you want interesting reports and not just gossip or lies I would try Freespeach TV and Link TV. They are great channels with so much information. It's fascinating.

Answer 8

Unfortunately GOOD news doesn't SELL as well as 'bad news'. Many years ago, the media stopped being a public service. It realized there was more $ in commercialism.

Answer 9

Bottom line? Sex, Controversy, and Fear sell. A news channel for people who only wanted to hear good news would be 1) pretty annoying after a while; 2) eclipsed in ratings by news organizations that allowed people to see the tawdry, without actually having to go seek it out.

Answer 10

Because

A) That would just give people a messed up world view
B) Good things happen so much that they aren't even news
C) Reporters are naturally sadistic