Ann Curry: Media Not "Covering The World Enough," Twitter Helps Show What TV Won't

Ann Curry said that mainstream media is not "covering the world enough" and that she turns to Twitter to "make sure that anything I can't get on TV I get out there."

The New York Observer's Gillian Reagan reports that Curry spoke at the 140 Character Conference Tuesday alongside Rick Sanchez, Robert Scoble, and Ryan Osborn — a producer of NBC's Today Show, which Curry anchors — on the "Twitter as a News-Gathering tool" panel.

"The reason I have to fight every time to do these stories is because the truth is that it's hard to get the majority of Americans or even a significant number of Americans in NBC, Fox, ABC, CBS's world, to care," she said. "I think journalism is a battle and I feel the scars and I see the blood on my sword on a daily basis for fights for foreign coverage to be more present in our broadcasting."

Curry's passionate words left conference attendees tweeting her praises.

KenStringfellow wrote "Ann Curry has serious soul. Her impassioned defense of journalism with integrity and depth was highly inspiring. #140conf was surreal/cool"

And twitwrit wrote that "Ann Curry was on fire...she implored the crowd to use their tech savvy to 'compassionately' cover the under-covered world."

"The world is changing and we're not keeping pace," Curry said of mainstream media.

Comments

[SharpDressedMan]

Ann Curry is all talk and no action. Her career is based on infotainment, not journalism. Her idea of covering the world is going to Antarctica. Give us a break.

[KennyFox]

Ann Curry is CERTAINLY not the solution. Christinane Amanpour maybe, but there are only one of her and lets not forget how Twitter can also be used to spread rumors, innuendo and outright lies. Twitter is no vehicle for journalism's future. Twiter is just the AP on crack, only without real journalists who at least, one would think, have a modicum of ethics. Joe Shmoe with a blackberry sending a twitter post in Iran might HATE the mullahs, or he might LOVE the mullahs, and so his posts might read: Greatly exaggerated attacks. Ahmed clear winner, unfortunately. Its true! Or: Ahmed is missing, sent army to slay protestors before going in hiding. My best friend just lost his mother!!! Who is there to verify this? Lets not glorify Twitter, please. Itll be gone soon.

[yoli647]

Thank you Ann, I agree with you 100%. To get the latest world news I have to put on the BBC Siruis radio station and listen live from london to find out what is going on in the world. The media here is too busy attacking each other and not reporting much of what is going on outside the USA.

[hippietilidie]

Agreed! Used to be a Today watcher (decades), but now it is 15 minutes of news and the rest fluff. Sad. I don't want entertainment, I want hard news!!

[ReesieKitty]

I agree- the only reason you hear major media sources denouncing the internet, bloggers and resources like Twitter over and over is because they see that their monopoly on how the public obtains and perceives information is waning and they DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT. These big old dinosaurs are finally seeing the tar pits - but they are already knee deep and it may be too late for them to pull themselves out. Instead of trying to harness these new information phenoms, they try to discredit them. I get my information from a number of sources ( I work in the print media industry) local papers, books, magazines, the internet, BBC news, pulic radio, Facebook, blogs, twitter. Having info and opinions from so many diverse sources allows me to review the information and make up my OWN mind what I think about things. A novelty that the major media outlets don't understand.

[Chernynkaya]

Curry's complaint reminds me of this old joke: Two residents of a nursing home are complaining about the food. "It's terrible, bad ingredients, no flavor," says the first. The other guy says, "Yes, and such small portions!"

American media can't honesly cover national stories without bias and inaccuracies, let alone the world news.

[johnie2xs]

Good for her. Considering many of the supposed "Heavyweights" in the media firmament, she is but a minimal star, but I give her credit for stating the obvious. For too long, the parochial attitude of the American people has been further played to by a sensationalistic media that tends to play to the egocentric beliefs of the masses. It's all "me, me, me." No one media outlet plays this better than FOX.

I don't know that "Twitter" is quite the savior of a more comprehensive press, but at least in relation to the happenings in Iran, it has shown itself to be an invaluable purveyor of real time information.

[oceanlover]

No sh-t Sherlock. I wonder how long it took Ms. Curry to figure that one out! Maybe she should look close to home and ask why NBC has closed so many bureaus over the past two decades, while continuing to pay it's less than impressive "talent" pool of on air hosts ridiculous pay at the expense of hiring first rate producer/reporters etc. to cover the world more effectively. The networks don't really want to cover news. Thanks to GE NBC merely views the news division as a losing monetary proposition. Once GE came in that's when all the cuttings began. GE brings what to life? As if...

[bluguy8]

the best international coverage is BBC America / BBC or the British papers on line . American papers don't really cover international . but the hardly cover American news . They cover bs stories that are more gossip than news worthy

[rubberneck]

,,,but we have a father day special with obama come up. Why should we care about anything else.

[Knowledgeseeker]

twitter is making a huge difference..

[Knowledgeseeker]

Ann make a good point, but what about CNN International ? their specialty is to cover stories from around the world.

[Frank Smith]

She's right to a point. Our domestic media has given little attention to Brazil attaining energy independence. On the other hand, our national obsession, embodied by our leadership, with fixing insoluble problems abroad while ignoring our own is applauded by the media as great statesmanship.

[MESGAIN26]

amen

[Melissa]

Anne is absolutely right. The mainstream media is covering, Obama walking the dog, date night, what he has for lunch, etc., etc., what the mom with eight kids is doing, Lohan, and so on and so on. By the way, to mention Anne and Rick Sanchez in the same breath is pretty funny.

[IllinoisTexan43]

Until journalism is snatched out of the clutches of corporatism, its relevence will continue to wane.

[johnie2xs]

This is definitely a "Bingo" point.