Perspective: Check your perspective

Northern Public Radio | By Tom McBride

Published January 6, 2025 at 9:57 PM CST

This series is called Perspectives, so let's do a thought experiment about perspectives.

Suppose the chief media outlet of our solar system were on Jupiter--call it the JUPITER GAZETTE--and word came in that all the dinosaurs on Earth had been wiped out by an asteroid. This would be big news.

But then suppose the same information came to the major media outlet of The Universe, and Earth is trillions of light years away. They'd decide not to report the story at all--it would be "local news" at best.

Or: the other day I had a paper cut and last week I stubbed my toe. Neither event made the news. Catastrophe is a matter of perspective.

I'm Tom McBride, and that's mine.

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Tom McBride

Tom McBride is co-author of the annual Beloit College Mindset List. He is a specialist in Shakespeare. For 42 years he taught at Beloit, where he won an award for excellence in teaching. He also coordinated the Mackey Distinguished Writers' Program and the First Year Initiatives Program.

See stories by Tom McBride

Perspectives

Perspectives are commentaries produced by and for WNIJ listeners, from a panel of regular contributors and guests. If you would like to submit your own Perspective for consideration, send us a script that will run about 90 seconds when read -- that's about 250 words -- and email it to NPR@niu.edu, with "Perspectives" in the subject line.

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