I am feeling rather low today, dear readers. I’m not sure if it’s the heat or simply my incredibly busy schedule catching up with me, but I am overcome with a feeling of malaise. I don’t find it a coincidence that I first noticed this as I was sipping my tea and toast this morning while reading over the newspapers’ headlines.
First off, there is not a single headline which contains my name. While this may seem simply personally disheartening, what it made me realise is that thought-provoking writing by fascinating people is not deemed as “newsworthy” as it once was. While I certainly understand that it is important to sympathize with the plight of the mentally ill or be outraged at the extent of governmental abuse, it is also essential that the media covers great culture so that young people can learn about my affect on the world we live in.
In addition to newspaper editors’ refusal to cover the lives of intriguing and attractive members of the literati, they seem hell-bent on only featuring stories which reek of doom and gloom. Quite frankly I am a bit fed up to here with it. All of us have felt down at some point in our lives and, regardless of our family backgrounds or history of methamphetamine abuse, we run the risk of “relapsing” into depression when things look bad. What we could really do with is some good news for a change, and therefore the media should be required to print some occasionally, if only to temporarily supply us with a “hit” of optimism.
I’ve no doubt that journalists will argue that their job is simply to provide information about whatever is going on in the world, regardless of whether it is seen as good or bad. To some extent, I agree. However, a recent report examining the correlation between the high suicide rate and the viewing figures of Fox News makes for some interesting reading, to say the least.
So what are we, the innocent public, to do when this feeling of lassitude sweeps over us? We could write letters of protest to news organisations, insisting that they cover some happier news stories, which I am sure do exist out there somewhere. Or we could create our own news: go out into our communities and do something good and then hound our local media until they cover it with the appropriate headlines, tone and background musical accompaniment it deserves. Or we could disregard the whole industry and investigate good news ourselves by touching base with friends or relatives to whom we have not recently spoken and share in their celebrations of prize-winning vegetables, impressive divorce settlements or negative biopsy results.
Or we could take our gin and tonic slightly earlier than usual and then go off for a short nap, which is what I intend to do now.
Smiles all round, darlings!
Everyone Needs an Algonquin 
Agatha’s Public Chimes In