News?

I had breakfast with my pastor this morning, and on the way there, the radio station I was listening to played a 'news update.' The first story they told was about how the Colorado Springs Fire Department may start providing basic medical needs (checking blood pressure, administering insulin, etc) at their stations. It was reported that about 70% of the calls they receive is related to medical needs, so it makes sense that while the firemen are at the station they can do that for those that show up.

The next story was about how a group of Park Rangers and volunteers are headed into the mountains to take care of a bunch of dead cows. They had supposedly wandered into a cabin in the middle of a blizzard and had frozen to death, and now they need to be disposed of. A couple of options on how to deal with them included blowing up the cabin, burning it down, or going in with chainsaws and cutting up the cow carcasses. They chose to cut up the cows.

As I was listening to this, I asked myself, "Is this really today's news?" I wondered if these particular snippets were chosen to pertain to those who generally listen to country music. I decided to flip the radio over to a Christian station, and their news was just happening to air....

The first story was about how the cost of driving a passenger vehicle in America was going up. Because of fuel cost increases, insurance premium increases, and repair costs increasing, the average annual cost of a passenger vehicle is about $8500. The second story was about an elephant at the zoo who likes to play the harmonica. The zoo keeper had noticed the elephant rubbing its trunk and legs against different things and apparently liking the sound of it. So he decided to attach a harmonica to a railing, and the elephant likes to play it. They made a point of saying they don't make the elephant play it, the elephant chooses to play it.

I honestly laughed out loud at the difference between these two radio stations. Each one reported something actually newsworthy, which applied to their audience's interests, then each reported something kinda crazy, which also applied to their audience's interests. When I told her about it, Rachel reacted to the cow story with, "That's GROSS!" But she reacted to the elephant story with, "Aw....I want to see the elephant!" I had the exact opposite reaction. I want to see the cows get cut up and could care less about the elephant.

But I still have to ask, with everything that's going on in the world, in our country, and in our city, that's today's news?