A Different Perspective

Television news in Europe differs from U.S. television news in many ways. It’s not just the language, but there’s that, of course. Aside from that, there’s the unvarnished stories, the facts clear and undistorted by concerns about upsetting sensitive viewers. The world, in its ugliness and horror and agonizing beauty, is presented for all to see. There’s no careful scrubbing of unpleasant reality, at least not that I’ve seen. Reality is presented as reality. Fearful possibilities do not fall under the skillful surgical knives of cosmetic editors, trained to carve away reality too brutal to see. It’s all there. Here, the prospect of horror is not an abstract concept of something that might happen somewhere else; it’s real, it’s here, it’s actual. Amid the glorious landscapes and fabulous buildings older than even the seeds of our democracy, there exists reality we try hard not to see. I suppose that, once seen, it’s impossible to unsee.