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The Snoop

During a baseball game a few weeks back some nut ran onto the field and caused a delay in the game. The network did not show the character and the announcers said it is the policy of Major League Baseball and the St. Louis Cardinals to not show those idiots. My immediate thought was, Why don’t the news networks set the same type of standard? Why do they not understand that everything that happens in the world is not news. Sometimes it’s a fine line that separates staged incidents from what should be broadcast or photographed. I’m not saying the riots and protests should be ignored. But sometimes it is obvious that the perpetrators are only making their marches and public displays of stupidity because they know the newsteam will be there to give them the free publicity to announce their protest.
When people burn businesses and homes, drive cars into crowds of people or shoot innocent children – or law enforcement officers – they are not heroes and should not be portrayed as such. They should be shamed, ridiculed and disciplined accordingly.
Major League Baseball has it right. Inform the folks as to what has happened, get the nut off the field and take care of him, and go on with the game. (It is okay, however, to show the cats, the squirrels and the skunks.)
Along the same line, I would add that things are not always as they appear – even on video. Whether it be a police officer using what appears to be unnecessary force to subdue a violator or the way a teacher handles an unruly student, we don’t see the entire story by watching a video on TV.
I know there are bad cops and bad teachers. There are also bad elected officials, bad storekeepers…and bad news people. In the heat of the fight, when the adrenalin is pumping most of us would have to admit that at times we have gone over the limit. In today’s world, when every cell phone is a video camera and a tape recorder, an event can be recorded and shown to a million people within a matter of minutes. And if those millions don’t have good judgment enough to use some discretion in what to believe – and what they repeat – an already bad situation can become a nightmare event by the time the 6 o’clock news airs.
Now to something a little more pleasant.
A few weeks ago, after The Snoop told Lacy Fowler’s story about arachnoiditis, we received a letter from Hardy Cobb, a former Ava school teacher, who has suffered from the condition for 15 years. I talked to his wife, Marlene, this week, and we were given permission to publish his comments as a Letter to the Editor in this week’s paper. I hope you will read it. This makes two people I know in the community who are suffering from a condition that I didn’t even know existed at the start of the summer.
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In case you haven’t heard, there’s going to be a solar eclipse next Monday. Historians tell us this is the first time Missouri has experienced a total eclipse since 1869.