A Lot We Don’t Understand

 

 

There is a lot we don’t understand

About things under our nose

And often regarding personal matters

Our under belly becomes exposed.

 

And often too, we are too trusting

In people we don’t even know

And simply because they meet our fancy

We can’t see through their show.

 

We regularly argue with one another

Until we become blue in the face,

“That one is wicked as wicked can be

But in this one, there’s not a trace.”

 

 

And we are over the moon cocksure

Based on a single television channel

That brings the news as soon as it happens

To all the world’s people.

 

I have been following two channels

That telecast American news

And I have become particularly convinced

They shape the news to their views.

 

One sees no good in the President

The other: he is the absolute best,

One believes that Biden holds the answer

To America’s Trump-created mess.

 

When news media begin to take sides

They end up publishing their views

And the public is left in ignorance

Concerning what really is the news.

 

So that if you are locked to a TV channel,

That’s how you will see the news

And you will likely take the position

That is in sync with that TV channel’s views.

  

It would be better, I would suggest,

To watch a number of channels

And hopefully you’d get a fuller picture

Than what a single channel sells.

 

 

Let me single out the two channels

That led me to this understanding:

Cable News Network and One American News

Are the two that I have been watching.

 

 

Take some time during any given day

And listen to these two

And you will see what I am saying

Concerning their contrasting view.

 

You might want to add in here

Microsoft/National Broadcasting Company

Since this channel in combination with CNN

Presents an unmistakable unity.

 

So, it is very clear to me

That people are not very well informed

And this is not so only in America

But in Barbados it’s becoming the norm.

 

Maybe I should strike the previous verse

Especially its last two lines

But do remember, please, I will beg you,

This is only what I opine.

 

Do not fret with this messenger

That only a message brings

But go to your source and then another

And see if from the same page they sing.

 

Stewart Russell © November 7, 2020