Sunday, April 7, 2013

Leading With The Positive

Each day I wake upland do the same thing, I check the news.  I check my CNN and AP apps and I check my ESPN app as well as watch the airing of Sports Center that's on when I get up.  I have come to the conclusion that the news coverage I get exposed to follows the following pattern:


  • There will always be war and violence in the Middle East and Asia. 
  • Individuals that are white and pretty usually get all the kidnapping coverage. (Many people get abducted but these are the ones we get to hear about.)
  • Lower level idiots in most types of institutions always bring down higher level idiots. 
  • Football at all levels gets coverage in their off seasons
  • And yes, Republicans will never like any president unless that president is a republican. 
I was able to start my morning today with a break from the norm.  Sports Center led their broadcast this morning with a great story about a seven year old cancer patient that was allowed to play in a Nebraska spring football game. Not only did he play, they set up a 69 yard touchdown run for him.  I'm not going to lie, this is a get choked up moment. I then thought back to the effort that ESPN made to announce that they would skip NCAA basketball highlights to show this story first.  Wow, how refreshing is this?  What if the news started each broadcast with something positive.  I went through my day feeling motivated and morally centered. 

What if, I mean sriously, what if the news led with a positive story.  This would without a doubt rock traditional wisdom when it comes to the broadcasting business. Lets skip the story about the murder that happened last night and focus on people that work hard to prevent bad things from happening. Lets skip the story about political gridlock and run a story about the coach that doesn't abuse their players but builds them into great people. Is this too much to ask?  Try it for a week and tell me that a  small revolution wouldn't occur that helped people feel positive and confident in their fellow man and community. Maybe it would be hard to sell advertising. Or maybe people would just might start believing in us as a nation that leads with the positive.

Watch the video

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jmisv1Spck

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