(Mary Beth) This morning, I find myself feeling grateful for
the media. Because Monday is Martin Luther King Day, my students have been learning about MLK and the Civil Rights Movement. I pointed out to my students that a “television in every home” was fairly new in the early 1960′s, and that it was the news coverage of events like the ill-fated March to Montgomery that infuriated Americans and threw sympathies to the movement.
This week, the media are amongst the very first with their feet on the ground in Haiti. The other night, I watched Brian Williams and Ann Curry from NBC reporting from the earthquake-devastated country. I wondered how these reporters got to Haiti, who flew them in, and, especially, where they are sleeping while they are there. There is a part of me that is appalled that a wealthy news organization can deploy its “travel team” at a moment’s notice while family members of victims must sweat it out — waiting and worrying here in the U.S. But, the reality, to me, is that without this coverage, I would not be paying as much attention as I should to a situation that demands compassion and aid from our nation. From how many different media did I hear “Text ‘Haiti’ to 90999″ this week?
So, today I am grateful for NBC, CNN, MSNBC and for your favorite news organization, too. God bless the free press!
