I'm like everybody else trying to figure out the rash of violence onboard airplanes in the news recently.

I started to wonder if it's not starting in the gatehouse.

I know in Atlanta, when you're sitting at the gate, it's almost impossible not to watch or listen to the CNN broadcast on the overhead screens. Some people love it, some people don't. I think it might be unnecessarily divisive just prior to takeoff.

Regardless of the politics of our passengers or which news outlet each airport chooses to air, there is a general consensus the news media has become significantly more partisan and polarizing than it ever has been. (Probably not something that is going to help right before you stuff 200 people into a metal tube).

My question is this: why are we subjecting our passengers to material that is at least going to be objectionable to half of them and at worst be potentially the first link in a chain leading to an incident of cabin rage once they get on the airplane?

Is there something else we could replace media programming with that would help passengers start their journey in a better frame of mind than divisive politics?

I suggest reruns of Baywatch, but am open to other (apolitical) ideas.

 

Don't most people just stare at their phones?


I suggest reruns of full house

 

Fox and CNN can do no wrong. 24hr news and social media are poison to society. There are very few positives to either.

Tom and Jerry cartoons or perhaps the road runner would be more appropriate

 

The airport TV's are for the old people.

 

I agree. Not that I really care (or watch) about CNN ot FOX. Social media however is a problem. There is so much misinformation and outright BS. So much clickbait titles and the like. In our time we are seeing people who do not care to evaluate this garbage against fact. They just see something that touches their emotions. After that it becomes fact in their little heads.

 

This.

Also, many "news sources" create shocking and half-truth titles for their various links so that people will click. No one bothers to hear the whole story. They just want to be shocked and whipped into a frenzy.

 

They should just play the crash scene from the Denzel Washington movie Flight on a continuous loop.

 

That's been their business model since the 1970's. Shark attacks, cats calling 911, alligator eating said cat. "More at eleven" has been replaced by "You won't believe what this shark did to this cat calling 911 ... click here for more."

I stick with the PBS Newshour.

 

Sesame Street and Plaza Sesamo.

 

The airports that play music are great. I specifically try to find areas without the TV's when I have to spend more than a few minutes of my time there.