In a random conversation with a stranger the other day, the notion of a Good News News came up. Being completely worn down by suicide bombs, war on terror, steroids, and other malice of society, she wanted something that projected only the good things in the world.

A simple google search will return a number of broadcasts, websites, and blogs that focus on good news, but like it or not, they all have religious undertones (most of them Christian) which goes against the first law of journalism: impartiality (of course no news source is ever completely impartial).

Furthermore, without any universal value system in place, the definition of good is entirely personal. While advent of low pollution alternative fuel sources may seem like a good thing, there will be thousands of people in the oil industry losing their jobs (not to mention all the Petroleum Engineers, which was a popular major in mid 1900s). But at the same time, if we limit the news entries to those where 99.99% of the people can agree as good, it may just filter down to those feel-good stories on the 8 o’clock news, which are cheerful, but almost entirely insignificant.

Nevertheless, it would be nice to see some news sources focusing on good news without making me feel like I have to be a Christian to be happy. After all, the world isn’t filled with bomb exploding, drug dealing, children killing, dog kicking, corrupt people that appears on the news daily.

PS The Good Bites section of the Good News Network is pretty informative and cheerful.
PPS Apologies for the rough Photoshop work.

Labels: happy, service