All that has changed. It now appears that events become worthy of mention as news not because of their significance but because there is video. Local television stations report car chases from the other side of the country just because they have film taken from the traffic chopper. It drives me nuts.
I have a high regard for the contribution journalism makes to society. My oldest son is a professional journalist, a career path I once imagined for myself before I got diverted, whether for good or ill. I'm proud of my son's career and he and I have had many conversations about journalistic ethics. I've learned a lot from his experiences. I am not a persistent critic of print or electronic journalism. I'm something of a media junkie myself and probably spend way too much time with newspapers and news channels.
However, this "Breaking News" thing is just too much. It apparently is calculated to lend a sense of immediacy and urgency to a story. But what results is that the lead story becomes whatever is the most immediate traffic accident, hold-up at the 7-Eleven, or Brittany Spears DUI. It all depends, of course, on whether there is video.
It's becoming a joke, but in my opinion it isn't funny. The trivialization of local news, which seems to be happening around the country, is having a debilitating affect on the sharing of information necessary to the building of community.
We live in a very complex world in which information is the most important commodity. I find it disturbing to see a program like Larry King Live, a nightly hour-long interview show, devote night after night to high profile crimes, usually those involving beautiful white women. Apart from the hypocrisy of treating crime as entertainment, and criminals as stars, this unfortunate practice misses the opportunity to provide dialogue on the important issues of our time.
The 24 hour news channels are now going the "Breaking News" route. MSNBC, Fox, and CNN are all scrolling the hot news stories across the bottom of the screen. My 20 inch television, an object of scorn from my kids, displays the various layers of scrolling news banners at a point just below the nose of the talking heads. The announcement of Britanny Spears most recent divorce filing was presented as a "Breaking News" banner scrolling across the forehead of Wolf Blitzer.
All is not lost, of course. There are important and dependable outlets for serious news. I rarely miss Meet the Press, a hard-hitting interview show every Sunday, or This Week with George Stephanopoulos, a personal favorite. For those of us into hardcore news we can search out Chris Matthews, Bill Moyers, or the columnists of major newspapers.
But even as I write this piece the local news station is spending about ten minutes of air time reporting on tonight's American Idol highlights, and covering a contestant who lives in Joplin. I've got nothing against American Idol. I watch it myself. But it is NOT news. It is a news station using its outlet to promote an entertainment program with big ratings.
The issues in our society are way too important to be subsumed by the culture of celebrity and the pursuit of ratings and profits. The breaking news fixation is urgently in need of repair.
Be sure to shoot plenty of video.
Oh...do I ever agree with you, Grant! One of my pet peeves is the terrible quality of TV any more and especially the news. We watch a lot of PBS because we believe the news found there is first rate.
ReplyDeleteWe read a lot and that's probably a good thing. TV programming in general is simply horrible. What passes for entertainment anymore is such poor quality I sometimes wonder why I bother. Reality shows are not reality. I miss the truly great comedy shows like All in The Family, The Golden Girls and Frazier. What passes for comedy anymore is drivel.
When we want serious programming, we watch The News Hour. We also watch Frontline, the American Experience and for simply interesting watching, This Old House Hour and even Antiques Roadshow.
When I want the real news and not the manufactured news, I read British news.
There's very little else we're interested in on regular TV. What a waste of a great medium.
We have too much news on the t.v. and they have to use the junk news as fillers to fill all of the time slots. KMBC channel 9 starts with morning news from 5-7AM and they are starting a new news show on a sister station from 7-9AM. Then they have 5:oo local news, 5:30 world news, 6:00 local news. They then wrap the day up with 10:00 news. There is only so much real news they can plug into these spots so they go for the sensational to fill air time.
ReplyDeleteI no longer watch the local news AT ALL. I stopped when they interviewed a young woman I know, about 16 years old. She had been in a car accident and her best friend was killed. The extent of the interview was them interviewing her and her sobbing for about 2 minutes. That's it. She didn't say anything because she was too upset. She sobbed. Why her parents allowed it, I don't know. But I fired off a letter to Channel 5 and told them I would no longer be watching. As far as I am concerned 5 is the worst, but the others aren't much better....now I get my weather from the newspaper and listen to Morning Edition every morning while I get ready for work and I am much happier.
ReplyDeleteMy son had a similar experience, but from the perspective of a reporter, when he was learning his craft at the MU School of Journalism. Maybe I can persuade him to share that story.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteWhat is "Morning Edition" and where can I find it? I used to watch channel 5 also, but they just got too crazy about going after everybody and anybody and really building it up on tv. Channel 9 is somewhat better...
Phyllis, I believe "Morning Edition" is the National Public Radio news and information program that runs each morning on NPR stations. In the Kansas City area it is carried by KCUR-FM 89.3 from 5am to 10am.
ReplyDeleteI listen to it every morning. It comes out of Pittsburg, Kansas in my area.
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