Arianna Discusses Media Coverage Of Balloon Boy On CNN (VIDEO)

Arianna appeared on CNN's The Situation Room Monday, along with Gloria Borger, Joe Johns and Ben Stein. She discussed media coverage of the Balloon Boy hoax as well as the Afghan War and Wall Street profits.

Arianna noted that important stories go overlooked when the media continues to offer blanket coverage of a story long after they should have moved on.

WATCH:

 

Comments

[jheinze007]

Arianna, you are so heroic! My former boss, is a SENIOR PARTNER with GOLDMAN SACHS and has been running a 'BLUE CHIP' Art Gallery on the Upper East Side of Manhattan for 16 years, illegally. The gallery was just recently legalized by the City Planning Commission of New York on June 12, 2009. If the upper echelon of GS thought they were invincible and could flagrantly ride rough shod over the laws of New York City and New York State, is it any wonder that GS has any problem "rewarding" themselves with taxpayer money and paying themselves handsomely, while others starve and are naked? Oh, and here's just another little tidbit, the townhouse in which the gallery exists was valued at $24,000,000 for the 2008-2009 tax year, well not anymore. It is now valued at $4,350,000 for the 2009-2010 tax year. That's a $19,650,000 devaluation and you know what that means. Incidentally, the adjoining properties' taxes have increased exponentially. So now less taxes will be collected for a commercial property, which was previously operating illegally for some 16 years, just some 6 months ago. Incredible eh? It must pay to have friends in high places! There's more to the story, but I shall reserve that for another time and another place. Keep up the most excellent of reporting!!
yours truly, JHeinze., former butler to Mr. David & Peggy Rockefeller

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-tv/arianna-discusses-afghan_b_326614.html

[samonet az]

First, the spectacle was balloon boy. Now the spectacle is how the media was duped by balloon boy and how the media should focus on "more important" stories. Either way, the wall-to-wall coverage continues...

This story is interesting. That is why it was covered. Things like this are ratings gold for news programs and that's why reporters pursue these stories. Sure, there are more important stories that could be followed; to our peril, too often the media gives very superficial readings of issues of major import. But - like it or not - human interest stories have always been a staple of the news business. And why not? The public can stand to be diverted occasionally from hard news. It will survive.

With regard to the balloon boy story specifically, it is a uniquely American drama. This is the core reason for its popularity. Looked at through this prism, I think it can tell us a lot about ourselves and our culture. Therefore, I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon and be manipulated by the media navel-gazing the story inspired. Rather, I will let the story inform me, to whatever extent it can, and move on.

[rationalthought1]

THe only story here is that cable news is not really news - its some entertainment, gossip, pseudo-reality show take on the news. This story was obviously b.s., from the start - yet, it dominated coverage on all the stations all day long (and they're still yacking about it). As soon as someone with a camera sees someone else standing on a ledge of a tall building, the "news" people will be standing there with their cameras so that we all have the opportunity to watch a person jump to their death on live tv. Its just a ratings competition that plays off of people's lower impuses and tendency to be fascinated with the dysfunction and destruction of others. One of the primary reasons that we're as poorly informed as we are and that politics is in such a low condition is the so-called job being done by our news media. All they are is a bunch of hucksters.

[Kasado]

I dislike the constant droning of public figures that periodically voice their concern over the fate of children in America. They always point to some recent report that children are hungery, poor, or somehow suffering, ignoring the fact that it is not only the children that are hurting but the whole family unit that is distressed.. Why do they believe that they can obsess over kids without even mentioning the family? If they truly were concerned about children they would invest in job creation HERE, so that families could afford to better care for their own kids and not have some so called compassionate gov. agency trying to interfere.

[KarlaElisa]

I saw this interview and Arianna had a great point.

Ben Stein on the other hand stood there like a jerk, seemingly dismissing Arianna's idea of focusing on the dismal conditions for children in this country in favor of 'rah rah' focusing on our troops and their names.

Perhaps Huffpo can create some tinfoil balloons with a first name/short bio w/ general location of each child and readers could choose to sponsor the one of their choice. Or just do a new balloon kid each week. No pics or specific info though please. Far too many child predators running free in this country.

[rfa3232]

News = Sensationalized. This is not NPR arianna.

[rfa3232]

To Arianna:
News is not used only for information in this day. It is about entertainment and this is precisely why you are so successful here at the post. Covering the homeless kids/iraq vets is not entertaining and people would quickly tune out.

This is a lot like espn, where yea sports are important but they have to hype up the game.

[ramblingjohnny]

CNN really lost it this week-end Wolf Blitzer replacing freaking Larry King is like replacing a boring anchorman by an even more boring anchorman! In fact it not just "like" it exactly what they did!

The Balloon thing still covered instead of real news is just proof of the utter stupidity of Cable news. If the whole cable news industry get prank by a not so bright family and you still cover it for the next week that says a lot more about cable news total and absolute irrelevance than about that family! No surprise there after all the same idiots played cheerleaders for the Iraq war! If you had any doubt left about the incompetence of cable news even after the whole MJ fiasco this week will have erased them!

[no dodo]

While this paper is still dragging out coverage of the balloon boy, reaers have to go to the UK papers to get coverage of US soldiers' deaths in both Iraq and Afghanistan. There is very little coverage in the US beyond numbers killed and wounded. UK reports provide information about the towns and localities, the opposition, tactics, support on both sides, strategies, successes, and breakdowns in communications.

Yes, the balloon boy story has become a running joke, but now that it's done, it's done as Arianna said on the news interview the other day. She said, "Now that we know he's okay, it's time to move on." I agree. Now is the time to move on to the real stories, soldiers dying every day for a still undefined objective.

[PaleMail]

And what about Iraqi and Afghan children accidently blown-up in war? No news about their (short) life stories.

[pokiboki]

After last week's (Oct 12) Daily Show, did anyone else notice Wolf's closing?
"We gotta leave it there"

[mravka]

Nice to know that the society of the spectacle is alive and well. This is another hallmark of the collapse of our civilization.

[dlvme2]

I like HuffPost and Arianna, but HuffPost could carry stories that are more important as well. Many stories that occur in the U.S. everyday get little if no coverage. Some things people just do not want to face, they feel there is no remedy for it or they are just plain tired of hearing it. But a great deal of issues "if" the media covered it differently and did keep it in the news I wonder if at some point it would strike a cord with the public such that they would try to do something about the issue.

[mcnary]

Sorry i missed it....... is somebody stuck in a balloon? .......

[Vinca]

I saw Arriana on Wolf Blitzer. I agreed with her , but we really don't have enough coverage of the wars in afghanistan and Iraq.

[saltymanjuice]

A sad day for American journalism, I keep asking myself what could justify this story’s level of coverage when there are many more pressing issues that need to be addressed in our society. Really I don’t want to sound callused but this is just one person and relatively unimportant to the overall well being of our nation, and imagine what could be done if issues like child health, and adult healthcare are given that much coverage on a daily bases or even weekly bases.

[Balzac]

Good points, Arianna. Ben Stein sure was cantankerous. I think he might benefit from eating more fruit.

What was really lost in all of this is that the family had a pretty good music video. It was a healthy distraction, in my opinion. I'm sure he doesn't want to be called balloon-boy or attic-boy.

Last point for Arianna - it's bordering on a tone of "angstivism" if you worry too much about the way media attention is allocated in a case like this. It was, for the most part, a harmless distraction.

Ben Stein was definitely striking a chord of "angstivism" with his comment. It's not as if homeless children are competing with military personnel recently killed for media attention.

Ben Stein was actually agreeing with Arianna in a very disagreeable way, not the other way around, as Wolf suggested.

But none of this is the fault of one humble, fame-seeking family. It is the fault of the media and especially the government for allowing such a high degree of media consolidation to occur.

Arianna's website is part of the solution and CNN is part of the problem. Networked media is inherently more humane than broadcast media. Broadcast media is still necessary, but media is changing for the better, thank goodness.