We distort ... and decide!
Why do the news media suck so much? How the hell can the media be termed "liberal"? Since when was it sound journalism for news programs to plug entertainment?
These are the sorts of questions I fear most Americans don't ask nearly often enough. And I worry that the erosion of the core values of society's supposed "Fourth Estate" will proceed apace, now that the patron saint of journalism ethics (and I might add a good friend and a fine human being) Dick Schwarzlose has died. But that's a tangent for another day.
I just found myself really dumbstruck by what passes for news these days.
OK, I should preface this diatribe by saying it's targeted mainly at television, though other media shouldn't consider themselves fully immune to such criticisms.
It blew my mind that I could watch the midday news on the local NBC affiliate (watching TV news is always a mistake) and see a segment with the male anchor interviewing four of the contestants (that is the proper term for someone who competes on one of these ridiculous reality TV games, no?) from "For Love or Money 2", which, not coincidentally, happened to have its season debut that same night on that same network.
Now, I realize cross-promotion is an inescapable fact of life in this era of the great media octopus where a handful of corporations control all of the media outlets known to Average Joe. But what I saw later on this same "newscast" (there didn't seem to be a particular emphasis on "news", so perhaps "variety show" would've been a better moniker) truly horrified me. OK, the male anchor interviews four bachelors; it's fairly innocuous. But then for the segment on getting your junk food fix without blowing your diet, they had the female anchor interviewing the woman diet expert in studio. It just frustrates me to see such an endless perpetuation of age-old sexist gender roles. And what's even more bothersome is that maybe a handful of other people watching the show, if that many (I hope anyone else with enough sense to make the same observation didn't bother watching), likely noticed how there was something offensively stereotypical about the woman being concerned with maintaining her cover girl physique.
By the way, I couldn't tell you anything about what went on in Washington today, or a single major international news story. But I now know that if I'm craving a candy bar but don't want my tummy to pay for it, I should choose Three Musketeers because it's only 8 grams of fat. Or better yet, share it with a friend and get just 4 grams of fat!
I feel much better informed of what's going on in the world. Don't you?
These are the sorts of questions I fear most Americans don't ask nearly often enough. And I worry that the erosion of the core values of society's supposed "Fourth Estate" will proceed apace, now that the patron saint of journalism ethics (and I might add a good friend and a fine human being) Dick Schwarzlose has died. But that's a tangent for another day.
I just found myself really dumbstruck by what passes for news these days.
OK, I should preface this diatribe by saying it's targeted mainly at television, though other media shouldn't consider themselves fully immune to such criticisms.
It blew my mind that I could watch the midday news on the local NBC affiliate (watching TV news is always a mistake) and see a segment with the male anchor interviewing four of the contestants (that is the proper term for someone who competes on one of these ridiculous reality TV games, no?) from "For Love or Money 2", which, not coincidentally, happened to have its season debut that same night on that same network.
Now, I realize cross-promotion is an inescapable fact of life in this era of the great media octopus where a handful of corporations control all of the media outlets known to Average Joe. But what I saw later on this same "newscast" (there didn't seem to be a particular emphasis on "news", so perhaps "variety show" would've been a better moniker) truly horrified me. OK, the male anchor interviews four bachelors; it's fairly innocuous. But then for the segment on getting your junk food fix without blowing your diet, they had the female anchor interviewing the woman diet expert in studio. It just frustrates me to see such an endless perpetuation of age-old sexist gender roles. And what's even more bothersome is that maybe a handful of other people watching the show, if that many (I hope anyone else with enough sense to make the same observation didn't bother watching), likely noticed how there was something offensively stereotypical about the woman being concerned with maintaining her cover girl physique.
By the way, I couldn't tell you anything about what went on in Washington today, or a single major international news story. But I now know that if I'm craving a candy bar but don't want my tummy to pay for it, I should choose Three Musketeers because it's only 8 grams of fat. Or better yet, share it with a friend and get just 4 grams of fat!
I feel much better informed of what's going on in the world. Don't you?
posted by Alexander Dubcek | 15:23
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