The Irrelevancy of Network News

Yesterday, I was thoroughly amused that right in the middle of a conversation on Afghanistan, Wolf Blitzer broke away for "breaking news." Do you know what the news was? Well, Rush Limbaugh had been denied the opportunity to own an NFL team after he had long berated NFL players. There were two issues that sprung up immediately. First, how is this that a respectable newscast like CNN could view this as "breaking news?" Second, how is it that the people who watch Limbaugh, who are probably working class folk, allow such a one to benefit by viewing his show? I turned off CNN posthaste!

Now, today I'm watching CNN and they have wall-to-wall coverage of the kid who it was believed had gotten into a balloon and was flying hundreds of feet off the ground in an invention that his dad had created. For two hours, CNN followed the silver balloon in the air and called on experts who spoke on the possibility of the direction of the balloon and where the kid might have been hiding. It was high drama. CNN created all kinds of scenarios. Finally, the balloon landed and there was no child. Oh, my! Now, this bit of drama added more speculation and scenarios, calling on many experts who talked about heat technology to identify the boy. It was getting dark. Where was the basket? Where had it dropped? Thank God for Google Earth! What other kind of technology will be needed to locate the boy?

I was getting very annoyed at the coverage. Yes, I had hoped that if the boy had climbed aboard that he would be found safely. I even said a prayer. But how did we know that the kid had indeed climbed aboard? Where were his parents? Who allowed it to take off with the possibility of the kid climbing aboard? Either his parents should be investigated by child protective services or CNN is running with this story because it's a slow news day? Is health care reform, increasing foreclosures, joblessness, banking reform, Afghanistan, and Iraq not fast enough, not meaningful enough? I got the feeling that CNN was loving a story that could indeed have had a tragic ending for ratings. I cut if off. I had heard enough of this sensationalism. I switched to see what Ed on MSBNC was covering.

Just as I flicked on The Ed Show, Ed was holding an interview with the psychic mother of Wife Swap who had lived in the kid's home for two weeks for this ABC show. But soon Arianna would be on. Oh, good, I thought. They're probably going to be talking about her latest post, "Why Joe Biden Should Resign." But to my utter annoyance Ed began with the story on the balloon boy. I assume he forget who he was dealing with because Arianna shot back with something like "Okay, I understand why the story was covered initially, but why are we still talking about it. The boy is safe -- now on with it. (By the way, he was hiding out in the garage attic at home.) Why are you still covering it?" I must admit to ROFL! The sensational Ed was caught in his own sensationalism. I must also say that his holding the government's feet to the fire with regards to health care reform and joblessness has been noteworthy.

But Arianna's question was perfect for network news en masse. It was one that I was dying to ask. Ed became a little testy and tried to offer a lame excuse. How could he excuse having the psychic Wife Swap mother live on his show talking about extraterrestrial beings? I couldn't believe my eyes or ears. Ed let this psychic go on and on, even apologizing for interrupting her while Arianna was cut short a few times. Amazing! At the top of the 7:00 news hour Hardball lead with "a story that transfixed a nation." The balloon boy had been found. Oh, Keith, it's 7:59. Please don't lead with this story. Does anybody really wonder why old media is becoming more irrelevant while new media continues to pave a new path? Go Arianna and Huffington Post!

 

 

Comments

[colah]

I am always surprised at the number of "progressive" HP readers that watch cable for their "news". I expect it from the generation that never learned how to stop the VCR from flashing 12:00, but this is supposed to be the tech-savvy, next-generation set of news gatherers.
Even Maddow readily admits she "gets all her information off the internet and puts it on TV". If you want real news, stop letting the cable companies choose you, which is what happens every time you turn them on, and start choosing for yourself.
As I have repeatedly stated, it is a medium of the past for a generation from the past.

[rughead23]

Strike that, reverse medias and mediums.

[Judith Ellis - Huffpost Blogger]

Got it! Thanks. But what does this say about the traditional media?

[rughead23]

The alternative medias are moving too fast for the traditional mediums to keep up.

[cmpost]

It is interesting to read numerous comments on this and other posts about the over saturation of this story. It is also remarkable to read author’s complaint about watching something the day before on CNN of low journalistic quality, but watching the next day hoping the bar would be raised (it wasn’t apparently) and switching channels hoping to find something more substantive only to be disappointed again.

People complain about the state of television, yet tune in anyway, and the networks continue their formats because viewers still tune in. Do something novel like I did: Get rid of your TV!

[Judith Ellis - Huffpost Blogger]

Hope springs eternal, cmpost. But I do so believe in active citizenry too. And, there is not the possibility that many of us will actually get rid of our televisions, but it is possible for us to demand more of it. Do you think?

[Klimb]

Got rid of my TV service in July for the reasons you've mentioned.

[Judith Ellis - Huffpost Blogger]

Klimb - Do you think you're that one in a million? :-)

[Jay Lewis]

It has been the press all along that has kept us from the quicksand pits.

It was only when the press failed to inform us, at least on the stay-afloat level, that we began our spiraling down into the hell we now face.

If it were not for the Washington Post, our arrival at the fleecing gates we now queue up to would have been realized long before this decade.

But more importantly, Nixon must be realized as a warrior for conservative Republican dogma and therefore a champion of, above all, corporate cause. Pop-up Ford immediately said 'the business of America is business.' I always thought that odd: it suggested somebody offering information without being asked. I concluded that Ford was talking in code to corporate America, promising that nobody but Nixon and minions would be outed. And to prove sincerity, he offered Nixon's pardon as proof of his cred.

Had Nixon escaped his well-deserved, long-delayed karma, and proceeded to do that for which he was willing to commit crimes in order to propagate, we would see exactly what we have now: a nationwide skein of scammings, coordinated and designed by many forever-unknown ninjas employed and task-set within large American corporations, and nowhere else.

All of that which has begat the dissolving of our Democracy by monopoly attrition and US Senate-sanctioned pillory is contained within the confines of the zeitgeist and modus operandi of American Corporations, and nowhere else.

[lagumbo]

Why are you surprise by what CNN does. They are the other hand of fox news, didn't you know that. All the media outlets are now today trying to make it so that the balloon boy, was a planned prank, because they were all made to look like the fools they are. No fact checking, just be the first ones to get the scoop
and put it on air. Rush and balloon boys are more important than our men and women who are fighting and losing their lives in the war. We no longer have news channells anymore. All we have is wannabes out their cutting each others throat for a dime. This is why our country is in the mess it's in now. New media didn't hold the republicans, Bush and Cheney accountable.

[springsm]

Ed is still milking that episode today. Only today he has gone after Arianna. She was correct..l­eave the psycho talk to Nancy Grace, Opray, Rick Sanchez...­..But Ed feels like he was slighted and so is having all his callers call in to stoke his ego. Somebody needs to tell him that he was wrong. To be a man and stand up and admit it.

[Judith Ellis - Huffpost Blogger]

Are you serious? That's gotta be the radio talk show in him. He'll be okay. :-) Arianna responded apropriately and now with the what sounds like an omission of the boy it's looking pretty bad for the newcasts that went overboard on this story. Bravo Arianna! Ed will be just fine.

[LetsGetToWork]

Ed will be OK.

He'll just be minus one listener/viewer (and as a result purchaser of his sponsors' products).­..

[DerikOBX]

Looks like the police aren't camera shy either.Hop­efully,the­y don't puke too.

[MFS001]

The other part of this story is the extent to which today's media technology -- blogging, Twitter, cable, etc -- has fundamentally changed how we get our news and form our opinions. A random look on Huffington or any site shows how every issue can be mentioned, discussed, and debated until there is simply no consensus. I wonder what this is doing to democracy, and whether democracy can function when we are so fractionalized. There was a time when network news, however flawed, provided a unity that would allow us to make decisions. Now we just endlessly debate our opinions, and nothing gets done. And if something does get done, we gotta divide ourselves over that too.

[Judith Ellis - Huffpost Blogger]

MFSoo1 - Your point is well taken. Action Now! Thanks.

[Klimb]

Well, it's a new era and thus, the limited media that once was has become mass. Fortunately, many have discovered that previous news reports have been biased but now, one's able to cross check info. from several other sources. Other problem today, is that journalists are more opinionated than actually reporting facts (e.g. the balloon boy incident). I believe that past media was oligopolistic but today or new media is a polypoly and thus, consumers will eventually not tolerate manipulation, propaganda and lies but rather sought the best news outlet.

[Judith Ellis - Huffpost Blogger]

Speaking of the dumbing down of the media, you are most certainly not a part of the media. Oligopolistic? Cool. Neither am I, by the way. Your overall point here is well taken. Thank you.

[GHARDY]

I stopped watching CNN on election night 2008, when they beamed Wil iam into the studio.

[Judith Ellis - Huffpost Blogger]

Was it Wil.i.am? They beamed in others. :-)

[Klimb]

Curious...­why?

[Judith Ellis - Huffpost Blogger]

It was a joke, Klimb! I guess I should stay clear of joking if that wasn't clear, eh?

[Mikamandi]

The traditional daily newscasts offered by the three major networks continue to provide a good, objective, and high-quality 30-minute summary of the day's important events, as do the public radio and TV networks. On the contrary, the cable channels, commercial talk radio, and Internet blogs are engorged with highly biased, agenda-driven drivel, much of it disinformation, misinformation, and pure propaganda. This is why it is important that major mainstream network news survive and prosper.

[InofTouch]

If it so irrelevant why are we talking about it....I can't wat for more stories about the subject of balloon boy and why it shouldn't be hype or covered

[Judith Ellis - Huffpost Blogger]

InofTouch - I would imagine that very few people think that the story itself is irrelevant. It could have been tragic indeed. The irrelevancy comes in how the story is covered by the news media and to what extent. There is also the importance of the culture itself defining what it wishes to see or not and what is actually occurring at large. This is probably why the discussion continues, not to mention that it is believed by many to be a hoax. This would be just awful.

[peterg76]

Their purpose is not to report on relevant news; it's to *distract* from relevant news.

[burmajoe1]

I got tired of the dumbing down, buy this or that if you want to be in, hip, noticed. The in your face lies told by politicians caught up in some scandlalous affair, the false prophets spewing hatred in overdose portions. I got rid of the stupid box a decade ago.

[3fingerbrown]

"Does anybody really wonder why old media is becoming more irrelevant while new media continues to pave a new path?"

Did you happen to notice the 13,5000,000 google results for "balloon boy" while strolling the new path this morning?