SPECTRUM: How to digest the news today without throwing up

We need lessons on how to stomach the news these days.

It is being mangled daily by journalists, especially those working for big league papers. This mishmash of distasteful stew being passed off as news is why I stopped my 28-year subscription to the Alaska Dispatch News for the two months before the election. I was getting indigestion and figured that after the election at least this slop, as it were, would not be fed us anymore.

Wishful thinking, I know.

Well, I love reading newspapers, so I renewed my subscription on December 1st. Already on December 2nd, ADN’s front-page headline story reminded me of why I need a strong digestive tract to dare swallow their news.

My health warning for you today is to be aware that major news stories are drip-feeding poison each day to your mind, like making you eat microwaved, processed food for breakfast week after week. I’m not talking about big bad news stuff like murders and killings; I’m talking about the soft sweet mixture of news with opinion.

Journalism has two tracks: opinion and news. Newspapers print news on most every page and relegate opinion to the interior editorial pages. Kept separate, historically, but not anymore.

What should be an objective news story is instead one filled with the verbal equivalent of those chemical ingredients you might find on the back of a ramen noodle package. In a minute, I will give you my secret fork on how to taste the news without getting indigestion of the head.

It is not just chewing the news, it’s knowing what to spit out. Three ingredients should be removed from the news you eat. One, colorful adjectives; two, characterizing nouns and verbs; and three, general bent. Writers use certain words that skewer you the reader away from objectivity, without you even knowing it.

This phenomenon has been specifically ratcheted up on Donald Trump, though all public figures are being characterized. It’s a journalistic tool to simplify writing and works on simple minds. Being warned of these ingredients is one antidote to the upset stomach mind.

Okay, an example. The Alaska Dispatch News headlined a NY Times article in its Friday edition, Dec. 2, 2016. “Trump kicks off ‘thank you’ tour.” Innocuous and straight forward. The sub-headline, however, cracked open the sauce bottle of bent: “Victory rally in Ohio gets leaner crowd, and chants were same, as mogul relished accolades.”

If I simply swallow this sub-headline without the proper antacids of knowledge, I would feel a stomach ache coming on. Being on the front page, this should be a news story, not an opinion piece, nor even an “analysis” piece that likewise fuzzies up the news, but a goodness-to-honest news report. Ha.

The bent shows in “gets leaner crowds” and “chants were same” to indicate that Trump is not really that popular and to throw a dig in at his audience.

A characterizing noun is the use of “mogul.” Really? Donald Trump is being called a mogul not president-elect? After all this. Still no respect. More: “relished accolades.” Doesn’t that play up a sense of Donald Trump being a self-centered celebrity? Did the writer actually interview the mind of Donald Trump, who stated he relished the applause?

The usage of “victory rally” was a misnomer, too, inserted by a sloppy journalist. As stated in the article, the Trump staff pointed out clearly this should be referred to as a “thank you tour.”

Colorful adjectives sprinkle the article: “whiplash style,” “raucous campaign event.” And other character-laden words: “frenzy,” “gawking.” To read this news story literally, with its subtle drip-drop word-poison that portrays Donald Trump in a demeaning way… this is not news. This is opinion-laced reporting.

In fact, when you hear the speech (you can do so at: youtube.com/watch?v=udan3dllTyk ), you’ll hear president-elect Trump talk about unity. I can hear his sincerity, and I believe anyone who listens to it can, too. His call for unity is not a cliché. And it was not mentioned in the article.

He affirmed that we are Americans, that we are not going to be divided anymore by racial or religious definitions, by rich and poor definitions, by political red or blue definitions. His was a call for unity in America, not for all of us to think alike but for all of us to love each other.

That by far was the news of this event. The video didn’t lie.

There were empty seats, which the NY Times’ authors conspicuously pointed out to emphasis their bent – the negative. In fact, it was his security detail that held up people getting to the stadium. As his speech was starting, people were still pouring in the doors.

Journalists are expected to cover both sides of a story with at least a presentation of impartiality. Yet each time this article stated a positive, it countered it. For example, the last sentence: “While Trump has moved more quickly than his predecessor to announce nominations, he has yet to reveal his pick for secretary of state.”

It could have been written without throwing in that downer: “While Trump has announced his cabinet nominations sooner than any president-elect in our history, we still await his choice for secretary of state.”

One needs to know how to read the news these days, especially regarding President-elect Donald Trump. It is deplorable to have to read news so negatively slanted and written with demeaning language. I may have to unsubscribe again.

But this is the real problem. Many Americans have swallowed this poison-type of reporting over many months now and literally got sick when Trump was elected. They cannot believe him but to be a racist, bigoted, celebrity mogul turned politician, because the slow poison has set in their bones.

Until the media brings back conscientiousness in their news reporting, by either firing or educating their pseudo-news reporters and editing out the pointed language in their news, you and I will have to use our secret fork to filter out this sour-tasting stuff.