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Noranc

I'm a thirty-something working mom to the cutest little boy on earth, a child bride who just celebrated her 10th wedding anniversary, a TV addict, a bargain huntress, a lover of food, especially ice cream, and a self-professed word nerd. Being an editor with skirt! is something of a dream come true ...

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News of the tragic

I’m not sure I can handle CNN anymore. Ripped from the headlines today: “Woman dies after life spent in iron lung.” “Girls maimed by train.” And these were considered popular news.

I guess I’ve turned into an old softie since becoming a mom, but I see no enriching value in reading this stories. They just make me sad. And I’m a former news hound, slaving away my post-college nights on a Texas news desk. I had a friend on that desk whom we wouldn’t let read the obits; they made her cry every time. At the time, I thought she was too sentimental. Guess the tables have turned.

I know that certain stories, like the recent events in Myanmar and China, force us to see the tragedy so we can be outraged, so we can act to help people in need. But to read that a woman I never knew lived her whole life in an iron lung, just to die because of a power outage? It’s a tragedy, of course, but I’d much rather read about ways I can help people now, or how I can better my life, help the environment, ways people are making a difference. I wish more news organizations thought so too. And if that has my former journalism professors rolling their eyes at the idea of replacing “hard” news with “fluff,” so be it.