Ubiquitous <weberm@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in news:2d3e7299-8fa3-4b68-a7b0-
0f6392f7f3f1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Turned off by TV news? You're not alone.
>
> We've just finished reading a scathing critique of network news by
> Jeffrey M. McCall, professor of communication at Indiana's DePauw
> University and author of "Viewer Discretion Advised: Taking Control of
> Mass Media Influences."
>
> It was this time last year, the professor notes, that Federal
> Communications Commission Commissioner Michael Copps criticized the
> television news industry for giving the public "too much baloney
> passed off as news."
>
> "Sadly, the evidence since that speech indicates that Copps' critique
> remains quite valid," Mr. McCall writes. "From superficial coverage of
> elections to hyped-up coverage of celebrity scandals, the broadcast
> news industry continues to give the citizenry a news agenda that
> degrades the conversation of democracy."
>
> And how have the news networks reacted?
>
> "NBC is countering the decline in journalistic effort with an increase
> in razzle-dazzle," he finds. "Evening anchor Brian Williams was a
> guest host last fall on 'Saturday Night Live.' NBC executives were
> delighted with the stunt, one of them saying, 'It showed a side of his
> personality that some viewers may have warmed to.' "
>
> (Perhaps we will warm up to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton now that she
> appeared on the same comedy show over the weekend).
>
> "The most recent NBC novelty is the new voice that introduces
> Williams' 'Nightly News.' It is none other than Hollywood actor
> Michael Douglas, recruited by Williams himself to open the show," Mr.
> McCall adds in his Op-Ed column, which first appeared in the South
> Bend (Ind.) Tribune.
>
> It's so pitiful, he points out, that on a certain "day last June when
> oil prices dropped $2 a barrel, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs
> stepped down, the space shuttle launched, and former national security
> adviser Sandy Berger surrendered his law license for stealing
> government do***ents, the story that dominated cable news was Paris
> Hilton's release from jail."
>
> Still, he says, there's hope:
>
> "Former NBC journalist Maria Shriver recently told NBC she wouldn't
> return to the network from her current hiatus. She cited the media
> excesses in covering the death of Anna Nicole Smith last year as the
> major factor, saying 'It was then that I knew the TV news business had
> changed.' "
Although the tv news is still superficial crap, I think that the days of
celebrity gossip feeding frenzies intruding into the evening news are
past. To me, the problem is that they don't care about facts, but about
emotion. They want to make their story as dramatic, as tragic, as scary
or as pessimistic as possible, Instead, they shold just tell us what
happened, and let us make up our own minds about how to feel.
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