Posted on 06/28/2005 7:25:08 PM PDT by Bombardier
Agreed.
oh man... duck & cover :D
I too long for the days when a newscast contained information, however, we must understand the ground rules before we go off screaming into the night:
1) Most Americans have attention spans measured in MPH. If it doesn't explode, have breasts, involve salacious details about someone else's life or have that Lifetime TV/Oprah/Beverly Hills 90210 feel to it, we will change the channel. Hence, all the stuff about runaway brides and missing teenage girls, and suicide car bombers in Iraq -- without them, no one would watch TV.
2) A 24-hour cable news network has an awful lot of airtime to fill, and no one will tunr in to see "Pete the Greengrocer" give yet another cutesy segment on how to pick the best corn on the cob for your summer BBQ. Nor will people sit still long enough to get the weather report for Outer Mongolia (unless there's a natural disaster involved).
3) Geraldo could not obtain legitimate work unless there was something resembling a cheesy soap opera to be presented. Neither could Greta Van Susteren.
4) Things like the Natalee Holloway, Peterson, Simpson and Willbanks cases are merely this generation's, real-time version of an Agatha Christie novel: compelling characters (or at least good looking), a murder (allegedly) most foul and a cast of shady characters that would be better employed cleaning lavatories at minimum wage. Think of it as Miss Marple Teleports into the 21st Century.
5) In the analysis of what actually makes it to the air as compared to what's available, the people who direct newcasts have to make some very difficult decisions: should I put on a missing person's case every 30 minutes or explain the intracacies and nuances of the European Constitution to a barely-educated, semi-literate population? The missing person wins every time.
6) It's still better than recounts in Florida and Ohio, and is infinitely more entertaining than the last Democratic Party Convention.
7) If you can't stand the news, there's always ESPN to repeat the same thing every hour, the History Channel to repeat the same programming every week, or HBO to show the same 6 movies for a month.
8) If you want real news, you go to the Blogosphere. If you want news tainted by entertainment, you rush to CNN or MSNBC. The SImpson Case established a whole new set of rules.
9) There is more real news contained in one issue of Time/Newsweek/National Review/US News and World Report or PLayboy, than thereis in the typical 30 minute newscast. Of course, all of those sources are biased, and using them as anything approaching a source of information assumes an ability to read without moving your lips and an ability to sort the BS from the actual news.
10) Journalism, in the great tradition of Edward R. Murrow, George Orwell, or even Andy Rooney, is no longer taught in Journalism School because it takes time away from teaching the students about how to make up the news as you go along.
I agree. Enough is enough. If there is a break in the case, report it. Otherwise shut up. Here in lies the problem with 24/7 news shows.
This is exactly the point I was making to my family. They seemed to already be "locked in" to this story. I told them while it's sad that this girl is missing, and people want to know what happened....this DOES NOT WARRANT 24/7 COVERAGE.
They want to give you breaking news every 5 mins: THIS IS A FOX NEWS UPDATE....THE MOTHER OF NATALIE HOLLOAWAY JUST SNEEZED!!! One hyped up story to the next, whether its scott peterson, michael jackson or natalie holloway.
This is the new media. They jump on one story, send their people there and cover it non-stop. A lot, lot cheaper than sending reporters to cover stories where they break.'
So, we no longer have reporters on the ground for breaking news - just certain stories that will draw people and then use it as filler - the cheaper to do the better. Use the family, they don't cost, use theories from staff, that is no cost. Get the same panel to analyse the dailies - afterall, we have a negotiated rate there.
Very profitable way to fill air time.
Simpsons Did It!
In a related vein... Just who are we to condem the Van Der Slooths?????
We have a sitting US Senator GUILTY of the same crime. His junior cowhoret is a proven TRAITOR that negotiated our unconditional surrender in Vietnam.
THIS IS A FOX NEWS UPDATE
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Your eyes have been captured by Remote Viewing !!!
Here is the unblemished truth ...
THIS IS A FOCK SNOOZE UPDATE !!! ;-))
Simpsons Did It!
In a related vein... Just who are we to condem the Van Der Slooths?????
We have a sitting US Senator GUILTY of the same crime. His junior cowhoret is a proven TRAITOR that negotiated our unconditional surrender in Vietnam.
Hic *** slorry fer the 2X post.
What they should be covering is how a woman who would destroy this nation is planning to take it over.
I stated a few days ago that if she were unattractive and overweight we would not hear a word about her disappearance. Sad as it is, a attractive blond white kid will capture the news every time, while many more go missing each day. Tabloid journalism at it's worse.
If people want to stop this, they have to stop the viewership that tunes it in and gives them ratings. That would be their semi-abandoned lonely grandma, bored to tears by herself or stuch in the rest home 24/7.
So visit and call your grandma more often, to save Fox News!
It's a plot by the makers of Levitra.
There has to be something to fill in the dead time between the OJ retrospective and the Peterson revue.
I wouldn't mind the tabloid treatment on a couple of stations, but it's all of them, all the time.
I dumped my extended cable because I got sick of infotainment. It's the same crap over and over.
I miss the History channel and South Park and I can rent all of that from Netflix.
Piddle on Cable.
What they should be covering is how a woman who would destroy this nation is planning to take it over.
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Nahhhh... that would surely create an ACLU sexist lawsuit !!! ;-))
All air time will rob Aruba of "vistors"..
Whats not to like.. cost them money and the place will be cleaned up..
other than that, nothing will happen..
Let them starve for a couple of years, till the sheeple forget..
It's just you, and me. Truth be told, if there wasn't money to be made in the story, they would have let it go already, so yes, it's just us. As soon as the story becomes a true downer (in the business sense) the newsies will move on to something sexier and more current.
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