I was struck by something I heard a couple of years ago on one of the 24-hour cable news channels during a report about the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The reporter stated that most TV stations in that part of the world show the results of war and other violence to their viewers, complete with all the blood and guts. They do not edit news footage the way it's done in the western world.
I wonder if the kind of sterile news footage we have become accustomed to seeing on our TV screens every night is really in our best interest. Wouldn't we would be better served by sometimes having to be confronted with the unedited footage of horrific events? Not that I have a great desire to see gratuitous gore on the six o'clock news, but sometimes we need to be reminded as to just how bad some things really are. Otherwise, we tend to minimize their seriousness and take them for granted. Yes, we would risk having our sensibilities offended every now and then, but we would also better understand the true cost of things like war, carelessness on our roadways, and violent crime.
Right now, all we get are verbal and written descriptions of such things, along with a cleaned up scene. That's not nearly enough to make much of an impression on some people, especially those who are young and feel invincible. A genuine dose of reality could be just what the doctor ordered by to make us a little more hesitant to go to war, get behind the wheel of car in an impaired state, or use violence in attempts to resolve our problems.
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