What's the Matter with the Media?

"Whoever controls the media, controls the mind."

~ Jim Morrison

Warning: This one is an angry one…

This post is not meant to be political in nature.  Which is ironic, considering that its main sentiment is most prevalent in political discourse (usually from conservatives, occasionally from liberals).  Still, I think most readers will find themselves having thought or said this at least on occasion:

I am so SICK of the biased media!

I can’t be the only one who has noticed a ton of anti-zoo items in the news lately.  After Costa Rica announced that it was closing its government zoos, CNN breathlessly asked “Should AMERICA close ITS zoos?”  Every high profile zoo animal death gets dissected in the news, as does every keeper death or mauling (they are still talking about the lion incident in Dallas, and that was weeks ago!).  There was Toronto and its elephants.  SeaWorld has had its own share of headaches, what with Blackfish and then the resultant celebrity exodus (I find the performers to be despicable hypocrites – they were fine partnering with SeaWorld when there was no controversy)*.

  

As of this week, the Smithsonian National Zoo is the whipping boy of choice after a few incidents in the zoo’s cheetah section.  Don’t worry, National – I’m sure the media will find someone else to pick on next week!

I’m something of a masochist, so whenever I read online articles, I instantly scroll down to the comments.  That’s where the crazies are**.  They think we take all animals straight from the wild, like we did sixty years ago.  They think that all zoo animals live in tiny cramped cages.  They refuse to believe that anyone who visits – let alone works in – a zoo can possibly really care about animals.  They think we should send all of the animals to “sanctuaries”… whatever the hell that even means.  The news article writers don’t say these things themselves, but they certainly set the stage and influence opinions.

Now, they do say positive things about zoos occasionally – usually describing the birth of an animal, especially pandas.  That’s nice (even if it makes them fair weather friends at best).  But still, they miss out on the REAL news, the important news that zoos and aquariums do.  Whenever I post a “From the News” item about something of real importance – a first breeding, a wild animal rescued and rehabilitated, an endangered species returned to the wild, etc – I have to DIG to find it.  It’s not on the front page of CNN or Yahoo!

I hope the media gets its act together and decides that just jumping on the anti-zoo bandwagon is only telling a tiny part of its story.  (I don't think that most of them are really anti-zoo per se - they don't pay enough attention to do that.  They just want a juicy story, and if it's not a birth, a scandal will be just fine).  Until then, I'll keep reaching out to everyone I can to tell them the truth about zoos.  I'll also do my best to make sure my zoo never becomes someone else's whipping boy.

Part of the reason I made this blog is that I wanted to make the world of zoos and aquariums more accessible to the general public.  I wanted to share stories and insights.  I wanted people to understand what zoos and aquariums do and why they have an important role in play in preserving wildlife for future generations.  I haven’t been alone in this – there are several other zoo and aquarium professionals out there also spreading the word (though unfortunately, it seems we spread it mostly to each other).

I just wish that we weren’t the only ones sharing the good news.

*I’m not pretending that keeping orcas or elephants in captivity isn’t controversial – even within the zookeeping profession.  I’m just saying, a little balanced analysis of the subject would do everyone some good, not just screaming “Free Willy!”  You know what, kids? They DID free Willy in real life.  He died alone, unable to adjust to life in the wild…

** Even in my despair, I never fool myself into thinking that the people who have time to sit around and comment on Yahoo! articles all day are representative of the general public.  After all, if I’d based my prediction on the 2012 US Presidential election on news article online comments, I would have guessed that Mitt Romney would have won in a landslide.