Political Implications of 24 Hour News

J

Jeff Thomas

New member
Anyone else considered this lately? Especially with the never-ending coverage of the JFK, Jr. 'tragedy'?

Now we have 2 channels of CNN, MSNBC and a local, 24 hour news station in my city. I'm sure I have even more, but don't keep up. They run a lot of the same garbage over and over ... and over. But, I'm noticing something I've never considered before.

Obviously they now create theatrics, almost a movie out of every 'major' news story. They give it a title, a theme, music and then examine every angle. With an electron microscope. They beat the living hell out of everything. With the Persian Gulf War it seemed to make some sense. The OK City bombing, Littleton, and now JFK, Jr. Of course, there have probably been scores or hundreds of stories in between.

The stories become much, much larger than life. And, no matter what it is, with their steady drumbeat and examination of minutia, the subject grows out of all proportion. Often with a clear, political slant, usually calling for more regulation 'so this will never happen again', to 'protect the children', 'we're the only industrialized country that doesn't regulate / license widgets', etc.

So, in spite of violent crime dropping 7%, and the lowest crime rate since 1973 per the WSJ, the Littleton coverage makes people think violent crime (especially re: firearms) has reached 'epidemic' proportions. As we've been 'kidding' lately (soon, perhaps, to be no longer a joke), we all expect tighter regulation of general aviation after JFK, Jr.'s demise. In spite of relatively improving private plane safety.

As a society, with this kind of news pressure, how do people keep their bearings? The CNN's of the world aren't going to back off - they have 24 hours to fill. And, people seem to eat this stuff up. Are we now doomed to reacting, overreacting, to every darn 'tragedy', 'crisis' and so on, ad nauseum? Because the way it looks right now, this kind of coverage gets people all worked up when reality would tell you to ignore what is not really a 'crisis'.

I used to think news on TV was a positive indicator, and professional wrestling a negative. After considering the above versus Jesse Ventura, I'm sorely tempted to reverse positions. ;)
 
Jeff, Several pilots cracked up the same day as John F Kennedy, Jr. did. One of these was a fatal. I knew shi% happend every day but the NBC news at least put up a blurb about the "other guy"
The "Talking Heads" really do provide the complete history of what they think you should know . It supprises me every time they report something in which I percieve is a objective manner
Best Regards and Good Shooting, Hank
 
There's no such thing as "news" anymore. It's now Entertainment. Of course,done for ratings. The "newsreaders" are now the "stars" of the show.
 
Jeff, they DON'T keep their bearings. I got into a back-and-forth emailing with a lady from another forum on the whole gun deal. She had taken a cheap shot at the NRA's stand on the 2nd. Okay, I offered a very polite, reasoned line of thinking about the issue, and asked her if she disagreed.

Her response was that I was rational, but that I should not try to "convert" her! She returned to further NRA-bashing...

For whatever reason, over the last 30-40 years, we've become so "touchy-feely" as a society that facts are regularly unpopular and are disregarded. "I feel yore pain" is indeed a major problem, and the news media feed it, feed on it, and pander to it. And I for one see no solution other than like most fevers, let it run its course...

FWIW, Art
 
There is actually a word for it, they call it "Infotainment".. 24 hr news programs. Personally, I am normally addicted to them, either flipping around the satelite with one of them on inthe home/office (often muted with CC on) or on talke radio in the car. I really have been told by my wife that I have a problem..

The last few days though, I have had to acoid them, as I just don't give a rat's ass about JFK, Jr... at least not anymore than I would any other freshman pilot who crashed while overestimating his abilities.

The 24hr news/info channels I know of include (these are all on my DSS, I know that there are many others, especially dealing with International and European News available onthe C-band Satellites):

MSNBC
CNN
CNN-HN
CNN/SI
CNN International
Fox News Channel
Bloomberg Information Television
CNBC is largely "news"
ESPN "News" Channel
CSPN 1 & 2
ANC (All News Channel)
NWI (NewsWorld International)
The Health Network
The Weather Channel

Add to those all the information sources on the Radio, including all the talk radio stations and NPR and it gets pretty ridiculous.

I have often said that life would be much simpler if the average person didn;t need to worry about most of the crap on those stations. Of course, there is a line somewhere when not making needless information available becomes censorship.

As we sit here and lament the onslaught of raw data that comes into our homes, we are the same people who would bitch (*loudly*) if the gov't ever came in and shut down the news channels "for our own good" or because they were "Biased".. we'd be screaming Bloody murder about the 1st amendment.

I've found that the only real solution is to get as much info as you can about the things that you really think are important and just change the channel or turn it off when the message is irrelevent or skewed too far to one side (even if it is your side...).
When we stop questioning what we see/hear on these channels, that is when we are in trouble.

For now, I'll keep watching and comparing notes with observations from various sources... and I'll start worrying about JFK's plane when I start thinking it might be in my swimming pool. :)

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-Essayons
 
I get all my news from papers I choose to scan via the Internet; NY Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, AP breaking news, and anything else I feel like checking. I do it when I want and that's it. I can't imagine why anyone would watch TV anymore...

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24 hours news can effect decision makers too. I used to have to brief the senior officials at where I work on daily events during a crisis. You would be suprised how many times one of these officials (very smart and capable people) would sya, "Well on CNN (Public radio, CBS etc) they said the X happened... I would then have to counter with facts and material from the official sources.

I would always keep CNN on in my office for a a few reasons. One, it provided good early warning that an efvent happended and I needed to get to work on it. Also, it showed me what the leadership was listening to and if it was contrary to my work, i was ready.

The scary thing is, that many leaders may all ready have made up their minds before hearing what the offical sources have to offer. And with it coming from many different news broadcoasts it takes on and air of validity when in reality many times the reporters are reporting each others stuff or reporting too fast without thought.

I found the news media was great telling me that something had happended, by 90% of the time their analysis was completely wrong.

Fred
 
Here in the land of Richie Daley, one watching the nightly local news would be convinced that we're living in a war zone. Night after night, day after day, the news media milks every single story relating to criminal acts, as if they were the only things happening on our streets.

But in reality, other than a few harmless homeless folks on the streets of Chicago, it is a completely safe place to be. Even at night. A confrontation on the streets today here would more than likely be a transient person asking for spare change, not demanding your wallet or else.

But not according to the local news. God no. There, you are made to feel the need to stay indoors to avoid the dreaded stray bullet from gangland crossfire, or from some serial killer. Yes there are occassional crimes committed, but one would expect that in a metropolis of more than 5 million people. But crime has to be at an all time low.

If you are told a lie enough times, you just might start to believe it. Don't.
 
I never had a lot for JFK. As a military person in the 1960's I didnt agree with a lot of his decisions but he was the CIC and I was in the rice paddies and the snowdrifts etc.
When he was killed it was a national loss period. Like him or not the President of the United States had been assasinated.
As a soldier and a father I cried when I saw JFKjr salute the cassion-borne casket.
I have never spent any more emotion on the Kennedy family since that day.

I am not happy with the way that the talking heads are so quick to paint JFKjr as irresponsible etc. He apparently screwed up and has paid the price.I think it is in poor taste to be as critical as some are.
Rush Limbaugh in particular has lead a one-man smear campaign and I have to wonder what his real motives are.


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Better days to be,

Ed
 
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