A source of pride, maybe a little overblown, to me has been my vocabulary.
I relished the times that editors past and present relate to me that they had to pull out a dictionary to ensure that the word I used was proper. They always were.
So, this go-around, the word is diminution, defined by the Oxford dictionary as “a reduction in the size, extent, or importance of something.”
I bring this up to point out that in my forays into the wilderness that is news sites on the interwebs, one massive issue that keeps coming up (aside from our president being continuously compared to Hitler) is the horrifying and questionable change that the beloved restaurant chain Cracker Barrel made to its logo.
Here are some of the things that also have occurred:
•Sen. Carol Alvarado of Houston attempted a filibuster to stop the Texas Senate from passing a redistricting bill that would favor Republican candidates.
•John Bolton, a D.C. operative that has had presidential aspirations, is being investigated for misuse of classified documents.
•President Trump and the Federal Reserve are at odds over an interest-rate cut.
•A sitting Attorney General, Letitia James, and a sitting senator, Adam Schiff, are being investigated for mortgage fraud.
The point here is that news that has actual bearing on the state, the country and its citizens are being pushed aside and relegated to mostly unread corners in favor of silly, inconsequential pieces decrying the removal of a drawn gentleman lounging in a rocking chair from the Cracker Barrel logo — the diminution of news that matters.
It’s not just the media; it’s all of us. It could be that we’re tired of the constant hammering of bad news, or even because we really were attached to that brown and yellow symbol of nostalgia and pancakes. Or, it could be that the tragedy of changing a logo is actually deflecting from this that people don’t want you to see.
The government, no matter who is in charge, likes to control the narrative, and nonsense stories help give cover. (If that seems like hyperbole, remember that the Biden administration was found to have demanded social media sites downplay or block information that was contrary to policy.)
The only way to right a ship of state is with proper information. Even the Founding Fathers believed that, and that was when there was no national media but just local news.
My thought is that items like logo changes, or Deion Sanders demanding his players dress appropriately, or male cheerleaders popping up in NFL cheer squads, or any other nonsensical stories need to be relegated to an area that is clearly labeled, like “Light Fare after News Dinner” or “And Now for Something Completely Different” (h/t Monty Python).
We live in the information age. Let’s use it for real change, with real information and lists of real consequences, and not for dance crazes or discord in the British royal family.
Tony Farkas is editor of the Trinity County News-Standard and the San Jacinto News-Times. He can be reached at tony@polkcountypublishing.com.
