Media Madness
HILLARY
I’m really puzzled, Jack. Every time I turn on the television to get a piece of the news, I get the same story on every channel. It’s almost like they are timed together. It makes me wonder if there is any competitive journalism left in this country. What do you think?
JACK
The fact that they may tell the same story would be positive since they should be reporting facts, not editorializing. The part that worries me is that they all seem to have agreed in advance to the time allocation of each story, and the importance as allocated by time is frightening. The only reason that I can find for this, is that they all seem to have the same opinion that the lead story will gain more viewers than something that is of far greater importance. On a single day last month all networks allocated ten times as much on the Jon Benet Ramsey story than on the war in Iraq, when hundreds of people lost their lives. It’s frustrating to me that they did not report on Saddam Hussein’s defense in a very significant trial or on progress (if any) on the hunt for Bin Laden. It seems to me that the networks, and the press, are pandering for audience.
HILLARY
Don’t you think that’s just insane? I mean, why wouldn’t Saddam Hussein’s trial be covered minute-by-minute like Scott Petersen’s trial or Michael Jackson?? Why are we only getting 15 or 20 seconds of visuals, without translation, at the bottom of a newscast? It doesn’t make any sense to me.
JACK
All of this translates into the absence of hard-nosed, investigative journalism. The networks, and the newspapers, all seem to be following the line of least resistance. There is very little challenge to us that helps us understand the real problems and possible solutions. There is no two-fisted journalist, a la Edward R. Murrow, who attacked Sen. McCarthy, casting aside any personal danger. When we watch a news conference today the chosen reporters seem to be lobbing soft balls and accepting whatever answer is given, no matter how remote. The "Fourth Estate" should be a free press that has no trepidation about questioning those in power.
HILLARY
But why is this happening? I mean, the media is responding to an audience’s demand. So, why is Jon Benet Ramsey more interesting than the man that we went to war over?
JACK
I’m not so sure that this is a true reflection on the interest of the public. The problem is always power and economics. Television lives by audience and it attracts the largest audience with sensationalism. Nothing better than a celebrity trial like OJ Simpson. Newspapers have become a weak follow-up to what you hear on television and mainly being read for sports, local news, and gossip. The element that has now inserted itself and is in the process of breaking up this comfortable relationship are the millions of bloggers. They are bringing another point of view, one that originates with the public. We are more empowered as civilians to express our thoughts. It represents a conglomeration, both conservative and liberal, and in its infancy is already showing great power for change.
HILLARY
I know that bloggers are becoming instrumental in forming people’s opinions, but I still don’t know from where I can get my facts straight. If the media is giving me Jon Benet Ramsey, and the bloggers/websites are giving me editorials, where can I go to get the facts I need to make decisions come election time?
JACK
This entire process is creating a greater debate in a world where there is no right or wrong. The power of the internet is forcing the issue and will give us more facts and policies from which we can make our decisions in the voting booth.
HILLARY
You’re right. The information is out there, we just need to go grab it. When NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN — when they are all running the same sensationalized story, I can turn to C-SPAN and see what our government is doing at that moment. I can Google for transcripts of important hearings. I can read the local newspaper in Jordan to get a perspective that the media here won’t give me. We may have to go looking for it, but the internet has given us the opportunity to find the truth.
Communication is inspiration! Share your thoughts below.
One Comment
Leave a reply
Don’t get me started on the media again. I was in Syria the first time a week after 9/11, it was my first trip. I went back a year later and we went into Iraq. At that moment, I was glad I didn’t speak Arabic.
debbie boggs 10/15/06 @ 8:35 amBut night after night, I watched video of Palestine. My husband told me once alot of the fighting is about water. His family are very promenient grape farmers in Syria. I thought the water thing was silly. Then I watched a piece on the Israel/Lebanon border. There was a tank going back and forth with a miltary helicopter/gunship flying back and forth overhead while Israeli soldiers were installing a huge pipe into the river on the other side of the border fence (they built a fence why can’t we?)to funnel the water over to them. Anyone that interferred would be shot. I couldn’t believe it.
Another time, I saw an Israeli tank ram a loaded ambulance going to the hospital right after one if their attacks. I am not one sided in my thinking at all but much more informed. I think we need to be open what we do for other countries that are attacking countries that we are also trying to develop relationships with. It’s a big price for us, it’s hard enough to just take responsibilities for our own actions, which is very little, let alone another country that has alot of baggagge worldwide.
Whatever the news is, it is, but editorials are very serious when it is the only source of information.
We need to understand the difference between Sunni and Shite. Make no light note that this recent conflict this summer is the first time you have every seen those groups coorperate with each other. Asking them to go into the other’s neighbor if displaced is no light weight thing. That they were willing to work together (something you won’t see at the Arab League of Nations meetings), during this conflict should be a big flag. Lack of unity has kept the lid on so far. Again, we need people to be educated about these groups because we all now live together in one form or another.
So many things go on that we don’t know about and the thinking that “ignorance is bliss” is over.