Sometimes I miss the '70's when the evening news was condensed into about 20 minutes a night with 5 minutes dedicated to weather and sports. Any need for more specific information was to be found in the next day's newspaper.
Nowadays, the same daily or continuing stories are expanded ad nauseum to 24 hours a day. Worse, the various outlets- CNBC, MSNBC, FOX, CNN, etc.- go to ridiculous lengths to bias their stories. With so much competition for ratings, each news source, in the business to stay on the air, culls a particular audience through a liberal or conservative hyperbole that drives me nuts. From Leiberman to O'Reilly, Wolfe to Rachel, the emphasis is more on expounding viewers' leaning than objective reporting. They (cable news dudes and dudettes) become the focus of our attention rather than the content of their reports. They are TV stars in their own minds, forever aware of the ratings they pull, and theatrical to draw an increase in such. There once was a time when we looked to our newsmen- can you say "Cronkite"?- with respect and trust, when the news reports were relatively free of editorialization. When the news report was just that. A report. Aah. I must be getting old.
1 comment:
Even though I'm not an old fogey saying, "In my day. . ." I do agree with the notion of inflated sensationalism in the media. How long can they milk one story?
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