Do you think what they report on the news is really that important? Well think again. This is a common problem many Americans do not even notice. For example, do you think the Himalayas will have no snow by 2032? This may seem true when said by experts, but think again.

You know many of the people who exaggerate things. For example, you may know this person as the vice president of Bill Clinton; you may more commonly know him as Al Gore. He has exaggerated that the Himalayas will melt by 2032. This has grabbed attention to people, who are now blaming this on the government for not making the cities less polluted.

News sources often exaggerate things because it may seem more exciting to the viewer or people who are watching the news. For example if the news were to have the title of the breaking news story “The decline of average revenue in Microsoft went down 1%”. In other words this would not be an interesting situation. If we were to say, “The president broke his arm today, climbing a flight of stairs”. That would intrigue viewers to watch the news. There is a common saying in local media “If it bleeds it leads”. This means that if it is a violent and a crime related story more viewers would watch it.

Some of the examples of the past and in recent are for instance the Al Gore statement about the Himalayas that it was going to melt by the year of 2032. When this was said in the documentary “The inconvenient truth” It was a big controversy in the news. The news stations started saying that the Himalayas would melt by 2032.Another statement everyone was widely afraid of was the H1N1 disease, commonly known as the swine flu.CNN predicted 90,000 deaths, when only 4,000 deaths occurred in America.


Does all this exaggeration get them more viewers? Well according to Nielsen Ratings it seems like it does. Nielsen Ratings is a well known company for recording ratings and other data about TV shows and TV networks. CNN, the station with the most reports about exaggerating news has 100 million viewers watching it. Compared to the other top television networks, for example: Fox, ABC, and NBC, it is the leading network with the most viewers. Therefore, since CNN has the most reports of exaggerating, it probably gets more viewers from a combination of commonly reporting crime and violence.

Are you one of those people who get stressed easily over little things? Well there many people like you out there. And the news does not help at all. We may use the news a lot for getting information and even learning about new things, but it also stresses people out. The news may say positive things but it mostly focuses on the negative things, remember the saying “if it bleeds it leads”. This can cause stress in many people. Reports also show that if you have a positive attitude this lowers your blood pressure. So this could shorten our lives though, but not by much.

There are many channels which are positive. Following in the second most viewed channel is Fox. Even though CNN is in the first, Fox would be a more reliable source. You may also want to read multiple sources of the news to get an overall idea of what is happening around the world. Do not just read one source. If you read other sources you can see if they all match up, or at least are close. So remember, next time while watching the news, think about the reality.