Anna Nicole Smith is still dead. So are fourteen American soldiers, over the past few days. Good to see our media still has their priorities straight.
Are we getting the media we deserve, or are we just not vocalizing our discontent with this in the correct fashion?
Hi. I'm here from Firestarter5's link.
ReplyDeleteSurfing the TV, and as of 9:30pm EST, three cable networks were still on the Smith story. CNN, MSNBC and Fox "News".
They know nothing, but it doesn't stop them from talking.
Meanwhile, real stories are going on, presumably right under their noses.
It makes me wonder where and how we train journalists these days.
If we're watching, then we get what we deserve.
Very true, Anthony. I pick on the media weasels a lot, but as you say, they're giving the people what they want, apparently, otherwise it wouldn't be so prevalent in a truly market-driven media.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, to be fair, I do think a lot people actually have made their displeasure known, simply by casting old media entities on the scrap-heap, unless they do an actual news story.
They know nothing, but it doesn't stop them from talking.
I think that might be what bugs me about all this the most. Even if we acknowledge that there's some level of news value to this story, there's still only so much they should be able to do with it. The autopsy results will be made public at such-and-such time, and either there'll be something relevant or not. That should be it.
Instead, they spend hours on end speculating. It's pathetic. But most of these "news" programs seem to regard themselves as broadcast butter-churners, just killing time between selling us monster trucks and pharmaceuticals.
24 hour cable news. Gotta fill that airtime with something, lest we hear the eerie sound of the wind whistling through our empty heads. I'm too lazy to look up the exact quote, but remember Thoreau saying that bit about being in such a hurry to construct a telegraph across the Atlantic, only to have nothing to report other than Princess So-and-So having the whooping cough? Prophetic.
ReplyDeleteor are we just not vocalizing our discontent with this in the correct fashion?
Oh, so now you're going to tell me that standing on the corner cursing a blue streak at passing traffic and pedestrians like a rabid Tourette's-sufferer isn't productive?