How to Beat a Dead Horse: The News Media in America




I am really bored with the news media. They seem so interested in telling the same story over and over and over and over and over again. I think the first time I really recognized that there was something seriously wrong with the news media was in 1986 when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded during launch. I remember clearly from the commentators:

I think you get the point. The news media just loves it when something tragic happens. How do you think the families of those astronauts felt seeing the moment their loved ones died over and over again? The news media will spend all sorts of time analyzing and mulling over every possible permutation until we are so sick of whatever the event is, most of us have tuned out.

I honestly believe the news media has an obligation to report the news, not engage in endless speculation. Report the news fairly, honestly, and with integrity, and let the readers/viewers draw our own conclusions, that was what I was taught in journalism class. There must be people who have nothing better to do than sit and watch the endless circus of speculation, blaming, and filler while the anchors wait for the next juicy sound byte or news "moment" to occur. Personally, I want to know what's going on, and then I want to know what ELSE is going on too.

I haven't even discussed how the endless speculations and theories of the news media can be harmful. The Littleton Colorado crisis is a very good example of how the news media takes speculation and turns it into a national hysteria. Once that happens, the politicians hook into this hysteria to advance their own causes and the whole thing starts over again. The Littleton tragedy was played over and over again. The media speculated and blamed goth music, the internet, guns, gun control laws, bad parents, bad schools, bad teachers, you name it. What happened? Bill Clinton used the Columbine tragedy to push his gun reform laws, all of the sudden people are interested in censoring the World Wide Web to make it "safe for children," goth music is being looked at as a "bad influence" on America's youth, parents and teachers are being blamed for not watching their kids more closely. While any one of these things might have something to do with what happened in Colorado, all the speculation did was get people all worked up, which in turn gave the news media more to talk about--vicious cycle continued.

Since the disappearance of JFK Jr's plane, the news media has been showing us pictures and telling us stories about the Kennedy family and quite frankly, I don't give a damn. I am so sick of the media telling the same story over and over without end. Report the news, tell us what is going on, then move on to the next story. Don't spend endless hours in speculation and showing us yet another angle.Yeah I can tune out and put on a re-run of Star Trek, but I shouldn't have to. Someone in the media industry should have some shred of journalistic integrity left to do what needs done. Report the news, don't dwell on it. We are smart enough to make up our own minds about a news story folks…I take that back, I'M smart enough, I don't know about you. Maybe YOU like it. 'Nuff said...for now.

© 1999 J. S. Brown




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