That’s news and weather….and now for sports…

I have rallied before about the ill effect of news broadcasting on the mind and soul. News agencies go for top dollar by playing on fear and our darkest emotions to goad us into viewing or listening to their broadcast. If they tease with “Teen kills parents, more at 10” they know that we will be watching at 10PM. Unfortunately the teases have to “one up” to continue to hold our interest and so the overall tome of news is dark and depressing. You would come away feeling that we live in the darkest, vilest, ugliest time in history but in fact the opposite is true. In context, our time is pretty safe and secure, but that’s not very interesting to talk about. They would rather feature the parent killing teen than talk about the teacher who retired after 35 years of service. Our culture has developed our taste for villains over heroes. Who’d a thunk that “Hero” is an acquired taste. So allow me to present a dish for your approval, let me know what you think.
I read through a post from Character Counts about a guy named Kim Hughes. It caught my eye because he is from Racine Wisconsin, a city that even the Mayor of Racine denies being from. Hughes played basketball at the UW and went on to be the assistant coach of the LA Clippers from 2003 to 2010 even serving as Head Coach briefly. The story started out about Kim Hughes but just because he was the guy who “ratted out” a few players on his team. These players (Corey Maggette, Marko Jaric, Chris Kaman and Elton Brand) had a news story that they were a part of but might damage the stereotypical reputation of NBA players. It’s more probable that it’s just that they didn’t want publicity for what they did; you see, a truly good deed never asks for recognition. These players, who sadly I have never heard of, chipped in to cover Kim Hughes medical bills in 2004. Hughes had cancer and the team management refused to pay for the $70,000+ in bills that his treatment developed. They saw their coach, a man, in need and they knew they had the resources to help. They did not sit idly by and talk about how sad it was that Coach had cancer. These four players stood up and did the right thing. Said coach Hughes in the report “You can have all the money, all the success, all that stuff, all those so-called important things in life but in the end you are judged by what you do for your fellow-man.”
This is what the news should report. Tell me the score of the game, hesitate with telling me how some NBA hotshot is grumpy because his $10 million dollar annual contract is “just not enough” and tell me instead about good people and good deeds. There are far more of them than the reverse and I’d start watching the news again, just to feel good. Doesn’t that sound better.