What Goes Around Comes Around

A few months ago my friend and business partner, Marty Park, blogged about how he doesn’t watch the evening news anymore.

“So how much media do you need to take in before you start to recognize you feel bad about the state of the world, the state of your city, your health, your car, your community, etc? I have said be careful of your inputs before. Be careful what you listen to, what you read and what you absorb. The media is often the absolute worst source of information. The news is now made up of opinion as much as it is fact today.”

I witnessed first-hand this week exactly what Marty was writing about. The eleven o’clock news on Global Television (owned by Canwest Global) lead with this story: an Internet television production company catering to the energy sector is laying-off ten employees (out of 100). Could this be the sign that the energy sector in Canada is in trouble? Even the spokesman for the company played it down, “We had to hire pretty quickly when the big boom was on. Now that things have started to settle down a bit we’re simply letting go some of the people who aren’t a really good fit with our organization.”

Are you kidding me? The energy sector is in real trouble because an Internet television production company is laying-off a few people – can you smell my sarcasm in this one? Is this story big enough to justify the “lead” story on any newscast? Will the people of Alberta wake up tomorrow morning and find that their world has changed because of these ten layoffs?

Even the next story, in a blatant attempt at sensationalism, was a little over the top: Westjet Airlines only made a $55 million profit in the last quarter – down from $72 million in the same quarter one year ago. As the Westjet spokesman said, “We are still the most profitable airline per ratio in North America and Top 3 in the world.” Global news tried in vain to show how the economy is crumbling because of Westjet’s "huge" drop in profits.

Literally, I was swearing at the television and the twenty-something news anchor who simply reads the story the way her News Director says to. Oh tell me it isn’t so. The world is coming to an end. Ten people were laid-off and Westjet only made $55 million profit (just in case you missed that last word - PROFIT) in ninety days. Just to put it in perspective, that's a profit of over $600,000 each and every day for 90 straight days.

But then today, proof positive that what goes around comes around. Newspaper publisher and broadcaster Canwest Global announced Wednesday it was cutting five per cent of its workforce across the country, or about 560 jobs, as part of its streamlining of operations in the face of an economic slowdown. The elimination of 210 broadcast and 350 publishing jobs involves voluntary buyouts, attrition and layoffs, and is expected to reduce annual operating costs by about $61 million, the company said in a release.

Attitude Adjustment: What you think about you bring about. You will always find what you look for. You will attract those things that you most worry about. Be careful what news and opinions you expose yourself to. Become a voracious reader. If you’re going to read a newspaper each day, read two – just for balance. If you’re going to watch evening news, watch them all and sort of the chaff from the wheat yourself. If all you do is subscribe to conspiracy web sites, well there's no hope for you. The more we read, the more we know. The more we know, the better our judgment. With good judgment, we are already ahead of most. As Mark Twain once said, “A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read.” And be very picky about who you get your information from and the influences that surround you daily.