MSNBC strives for new low in "journal-izm"

[Audio Slave]

What is with MSNBC's 24/7 coverage of Anna Nichol Smith's ordeal?

When CNN & Fox are covering a tour bus carrying high school team in Atlanta plunging from an overpass killing 6 students, followed by the devastating wake of tornados in Americus Georgia, Ms NBC, in true Paparazzi style, continues it's circus of Ann's funeral with several crews in the Bahamas. Live, second by second coverage of the procession from the airport to the cemetery (including a shot of the hearst from a sniper position in the bushes), in the church, at the grave, at the courthouse, etc.

I especially enjoyed the irony of one guest commentator, when asked about how the people there are reacting to the prospect of one of the parties trying to stop the funeral, said that the poeple there are just tired of the circus, and can't everyone just leave the poor woman in peace (referring to the legal participants, not Ms NBC)?

As if Joe public really cared?

[ishoot]

MSNBC is actually covering the other two stories as well. Do you expect them to drop the funeral when they, along with all the other news outlets have covered the "circus" act this far? It would be unfair to the views to drop the story at this point.

[Bismarck]

Everyone should just do this (http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/02/ignoring.parishilton.ap/index.html) from now on.

[OmegaRed]

As if Joe public really cared?

Are you serious? Who do you think Joe Public is?

Why do we have entire blocks of our newscasts dedicated to celebrity birthdays? Rehab reports? Movie reviews? Grammy/Oscar/Golden Globe recaps? Paris Hilton getting a parking ticket? If the Joe Public doesn't care?

In two weeks what do you think Joe Public is going to remember? Anna Nicole dying or a bus accident that killed 6 people no one ever heard of?

Being that I have absolutely no faith in humanity, I'm going with Anna Nicole.

I totally get what you're coming from, but Joe Public eats this crap up.

[Baltimore Shooter]

And they wonder why people are tuning out of TV news. :rolleyes:

Warren

[Audio Slave]

Yes, the other outlets are covering the story, but no one is giving it nearly as much air time as Ms NBC. They will give it a solid half hour, breaking away for a few minutes to cover other stories "of interest", then go back for another half hour.

Is the story interesting? yes. Does it deserve more air time than President Ford's funeral? Not in my view.

[Frank McBride]

Thank God a car chase didn't break out in LA during the funeral. Talk about a dilemna. They would have to put one in a box.

Now that Anna is finally in a box, I don't hold out much hope that her story will be replaced by real news. The AP experiment sounded great, but they knew to only do it short term. The reality is McDonald's and Wal Mart are the order of the day. Folks want their junk news fix.

FMc

[svp]

CNN, MSNBC, and FOX NEWS are NOT news channels. They call themselves that but their talent injects way to many personal opions to be considered a news station. The only REAL news MSNBC does is when they replay "Meet the Press" at 3am. How do you explain the Doc-Bloc? Those documentaries are not news. Especially when we've seen the inside of the same prison 4-million times a year!!!! Fox News is the furthest thing from news you can get. CNN does SOME news but they're increasingly moving away from REAL news.

[pre-set]

Are you serious? Who do you think Joe Public is?

Why do we have entire blocks of our newscasts dedicated to celebrity birthdays? Rehab reports? Movie reviews? Grammy/Oscar/Golden Globe recaps? Paris Hilton getting a parking ticket? If the Joe Public doesn't care?

In two weeks what do you think Joe Public is going to remember? Anna Nicole dying or a bus accident that killed 6 people no one ever heard of?

Being that I have absolutely no faith in humanity, I'm going with Anna Nicole.

I totally get what you're coming from, but Joe Public eats this crap up.




'Red's right. People feed on this sh!t...

My g/f, an otherwise intelligent, cynical, bright woman, is obsessed (well, maybe just really "interested") with this whole mess. I don't get it either, but she's following it like a bloodhound and I'd have to say she's smarter than most people I run into every day.

[NEWSSHOOTER3]

Its sad, but true. We all have to do what we're told, plus or minus some ethical debate, but Anna is holding the viewers. Granted I believe most news viewers are more intelligent than that, but a fair amount of TVs are tuned to to Anna. Advertisers are not immune to the facts. Nor is management. I make this statement having known one of the MS people on the ground AND having been one of the first on the ground for the unfortunate bus ax in ATL today. I don't like it either, but don't blame the people on the ground at MS!

[OmegaRed]

A good read on this very topic:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0305/p09s01-coop.html?page=2

"Why the media passes off bunk as news"
The 24-hour news cycle is partially at fault, but the frantic quest for ratings reigns supreme.
By Drew Curtis



"MARGARET SCOTTLEXINGTON, KY. - In early February, the lead story on CNN.com – "the most trusted name in news" – was about tattooed fish.

Emblazoned on the website was a large picture of a fish with some kind of design on its belly. I don't have fish but if I ever wanted any, I'd probably get that fish. It looked pretty cool.

Here's the problem, though: Surely there were more important things happening in the world. I think there is a war going on somewhere. Is Social Security fixed yet?

Don't get me wrong. I like oddball news as much as anyone. In fact, I make a decent living showcasing a daily collection of silly news, offbeat items, and real news with amusing headlines on my website, Fark.com, which attracts 3.5 million unique visitors each month. What's scary, though, is that the ratio of filler news to real news is now so high that the content of Fark and major news websites is often nearly identical. That should never happen because, in theory, mass media outlets are staffed by full-time, serious journalists who have better things to do.

So what's going on?

Part of the blame lies with the 24-hour news cycle. Sometimes there just isn't anything substantial going on. But the mass media, like nature, abhor a vacuum. Journalists have developed proven techniques to fill it.

Consider the recent announcement – almost certainly bogus – by movie director James Cameron that he discovered boxes that once contained the bones of Jesus, his alleged wife, Mary, and their alleged boy, Elroy, or whatever his name was. This news item is a combination of two common "not-news" stories slammed together.

1. Headline Contradicted by Actual Article. Headlines of most of the articles about this subject stated that Mr. Cameron had found a box with Jesus' bones in it. However, the actual articles tell us that there were no bones inside after all, and we don't have samples of Jesus' DNA. Headline Contradicted by Actual Article is either an editorial oversight or an intentional misleading of the public to draw attention to an otherwise lame article. In this case, however, the article wasn't just lame, it was inflammatory because of its close relation to our next type of bogus media article.

2. Ad Masquerading as Actual Article. Several hundred publications ran this article, so it's not likely that anyone was paid off for placement. But this isn't a news article – it's a commercial. Most articles tell us that the "startling" claim about Jesus will be examined in-depth in a documentary Cameron produced. And they helpfully remind us what channel it's on and what time to watch. That's an ad in my book. Figuratively and literally. (Sharp readers will see what I just did there.)

There are several other techniques media use to stir reader interest. They're transparent and simplistic, but they work.

The good news is that every journalist I've talked to agrees this is a problem that's getting worse and they're not happy about it. They didn't go to graduate school to spend their time researching and writing about nuts who think Noah's Ark is visible from space on a mountain in Iran or what Brad Pitt thinks about stem-cell research.

Mass media aren't intentionally trying to dumb down the news, but there's no getting around the fact that nonnews types of articles are what drive ad revenue on the Internet. It's a subtle difference but an important one, because it removes intent as a motivation. Sadly, we still end up with the same result: bunk being passed off as news.

Sometimes, the revenue incentive in media produces hilarious results. Remember the girl who couldn't stop hiccuping this winter? ABC's "Good Morning America" representatives called her home 57 times in one day in a bid to book her for the show. Occasionally, though, you get horrific results, such as this past January when nearly every news outlet ran video of Saddam Hussein's execution ad nauseum for days. Apparently, snuff films are now OK for mainstream news. Now all that's left is a live on-air killing passing as news, maybe in a high-speed car chase. Wait, that's already happened. That leaves just pornography, and that's not far behind.

So whose fault is all this, the media's or the public's? Both. Real news is simply not a ratings leader. Evening network news shows aren't shown during prime time because they can't hack it. This is also why prime-time news shows consist almost entirely of celebrity interviews and pedophile arrests. Note which type of "news" gets the better time slot.

It's looking more and more as though the age of impartial journalism was a temporary blip in history whose reign ended a few years ago when the Internet turned news consumption from all-inclusive (per newspaper) to a la carte (per story).

My forthcoming book offers some solutions. Here's one: Split 24-hour news channels in two – one carries all the "Fark," the other carries all the real news. Revenues funnel into the same bank account; everyone wins.

Until that happens, news consumers will have to adjust to a world in which journalistic principles are being thrown out the window in a frantic quest for ratings. And mass media outlets need to make a call: Either report serious news or give up all pretenses. "

[TXPhotog]

What is with MSNBC's 24/7 coverage of Anna Nichol Smith's ordeal?

When CNN & Fox are covering a tour bus carrying high school team in Atlanta plunging from an overpass killing 6 students, followed by the devastating wake of tornados in Americus Georgia, Ms NBC, in true Paparazzi style, continues it's circus of Ann's funeral with several crews in the Bahamas. Live, second by second coverage of the procession from the airport to the cemetery (including a shot of the hearst from a sniper position in the bushes), in the church, at the grave, at the courthouse, etc.

Since I would only say the same thing as these other folks, here's my 2 cents:

1. It was the baseball team from Bluffton University in Ohio, not a high school.

2. It's a HEARSE not a HEARS-T. A Hearst is an American newspaper heiress who joined the Symbionese Liberation Army.