The first segment of this week's On The Media examines the media's attempt to foment panic about the Mexican Swine H1N1 flu.
Actual story starts about 30 seconds in:
Nice to hear from the grownups, isn't it? Although I do have to say, this piece also reminds me why so few people trust "the media" anymore, and why I often think the explosion of 24-hour news channels is a net loss for society.
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To be clear on the latter, it's not that I am against 24-hour news channels in principle. It's just that, given how they're viewed as business models, we've ended up with a bunch of overpaid dimwits, yammering endlessly about one story, terrified not to cover what everyone else is covering, and endlessly competing to make their own telling more gripping and breathless than everyone else's. In the OTM segment embedded above, I find the reporter's attempts to wheedle an admission that "it could be the turrurists, couldn't it? We can't be absolutely sure, can we???" a disgrace. How is this even close to Informing The Public™?
Back when CNN was launched and it became clear that the number of available cable TV channels would soon be effectively unlimited, I had a fantasy that at least a couple of them would be devoted to reporting the news in a way that didn't make me want to plunge stakes into my eyes and ears. I had a vision of a channel that would be all about not covering what everyone else was covering; that would spend a good chunk of time on the details of a complex story, and wouldn't hesitate to run it in a loop if that's all they could afford to produce for that day. In my dreams, I'd hear every so often, "You know what? Nothing really significant happened today, so let's take a look back at some past stories and find out how they evolved once they stopped being THE STORY."
I know, I know. Might as well wish for ponies for everyone, too.
1 comment:
I couldn't agree more about the 24 hour news channels. They more often then not, make me cringe.
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