
The News
They say no news is good news. But when you work at a news station, that’s not exactly true. No news means you’re fired, and good news is whatever brings in ratings. And what brings in ratings is bad news because people only ever seem to watch the news when they’re scared or angry. So, if you want to make everyone happy you have to make everyone else upset. And so good news becomes bad news and bad news becomes good news. You could drive yourself crazy thinking about it too much. So, I try not to. I like to leave morality out of it. If it’s going to become so scrambled, what difference does it make? And so, I just call it the news. It’s neither good nor bad, it just is what it is. So, I type the news into the teleprompter. The anchor reads it to the world, and they make of it what they will.
Meanwhile, the world will keep on spinning regardless of the news. I’ll clock out and walk home. I’ll feed my cat and she’ll nuzzle against my ankle. Then my wife and I will eat popcorn and watch a movie we’ve seen a hundred times before. I don’t know if you can call that news, but -to me- it doesn’t get much better than that.
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To Leave Comments - Please SignIn with GoogleA great conundrum, Chase. I was dizzy after the third reading. I wonder what a certain European politician would make of it! If you’re a Brit you’ll be familiar with the TV show ‘The Two Ronnies’. You could have sold this script to the producers no problem!
Chase, I enjoyed reading this! I can see your protagonist’s predicament if there was no news. It made me wonder, what would happen if there really was no news. Would they create ‘fictional’ news or maybe do something more sinister to create something newsworthy? I often wonder how reporters get through the days without being traumatised or emotionally affected by some of the stories they have to report on. It cannot be… Read more »
Thanks for your story which reads like a British comedy script. Welcome to Voice.Club!
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To Leave Comments - Please SignIn with GoogleA warm welcome to the voice club, Chase. I feel like I’m spinning but I really enjoyed reading it. Well done for your first story. I am excited to read more from you. Keep on writing!