When I was a kid in the late 60s living at my grandparent’s house in Defiance Ohio, every day started with the Today show. The show then featured Hugh Downs, Barbara Walters, Joe Garagiola and Frank Blair. I was to young to understand the issues of the day, I just remember that The show always opened with “Good Morning”, and “Welcome”. Hugh Downs, Barbara Walters and especially Joe Garagiola would be upbeat. Then they would cut to Frank Blair with the news. I thought that this guy was kind of a downer. He would bum us out with footage of the war in Vietnam and riots at home. He really brought the party down. Then I turned six and realized that what he said was important, even if I didn’t really understand it.
I have noticed lately when people have been asked to comment on a current event they respond with, "Oh, I don't watch the news. It's so negative". Forgive my cynicism, but my first impression with some of the people who make that comment is that they are using a moral high ground to mask disinterest, ignorance, or apathy to that current event. I can’t help but to think that years and years of disinterest, ignorance, and apathy to current events has brought us to the place where we are now in the world.
Yes we all get tired of the “If it bleeds, it leads” style of many news programs, but it still works. The Scott Peterson case had absolutely no journalistic merit whatsoever, yet it was turned into a reality mini-series. Just because the news is bad does not always mean that it’s negative. For example, “More soldiers dead in Iraq” is bad news. “Something in your kitchen can kill you. Details at eleven.” is negative news. By the way how do put a positive spin on a war? Other than, “It’s over”, or “We won”.
In the time between waking up and the time I pour my first cup of coffee, I am in a state of practical cynicism. When I turn on the morning news. I want to know what happened overnight, the weather forecast and the traffic report/freeway conditions. In other words, is it worth getting out of bed today? Instead all I see is another report about Janet Jackson showing one part of her anatomy to a large audience, while her brother Michael is showing another part of his anatomy to a smaller audience.
Article comments
1 - DrPat
Great commentary, Tony, but you lost me with After 9/11 we asked, “who”, “how” and “why”? Maybe if we weren’t being fed a steady diet of O.J. & Monica we would have known.
I couldn't quite figure out how hot news from 1995 kept us from getting answers to those hot questions in 2001.
2 - Eric Olsen
you're right that's it's up to us to seek out thenews, and there is effort involved in getting anything other than the headlines and senationalism, but I think the rise of the internet and blogging have given those interested a way to get pretty much all the information and analysis that they can handle, but certainly the networks and main new channels are a disappointment
3 - Eric Berlin
I find television news to be increasingly irrelevant to my life, and I suspect that the same is now true for many others (particularly people who spend a lot of time online).
Local news is largely pathetic, except for finding out weather conditions, traffic, or the occasional local story of interest. National news isn't much better: the thought ocurred to me recently, with the hubbub about Rather's last show, that the "nightly news" is a dying concept.
I'm a junkie for hard political news, so I'll watch Hardball occasionally, but other than that, it's all online, all the time.
That said, I miss the days of casually leafing through a print newspaper. I think the print news is still one of the best way to find stories you didn't know you were interested in.
And that's really where BlogCritics steps in -- it fills that gap brilliantly.
4 - Al Barger
This was a particularly good summary of the CBN approach: It’s the only news show where you can see an act of God, hear why God did what he did then find out what you need to do so he doesn’t do it again.
I particularly enjoy when they have news analysts and authors explaining "revelations" that they've had from God. Now THAT'S getting it straight from the horse's mouth.
5 - HW Saxton
Great commentary.Very interesting read
even.I watch so little network news any
more, preferring instead to read my two
daily papers(my local & the L.A.Times)
and many various bookmarked news sources
online. I'll only watch TV news if Rudi
Bhaktiar is reporting it as she is one
smoking hot babe!
6 - Daniel
Great commentary
7 - Rodney Welch
Oh quit being such a puritan.
"The Scott Peterson case had absolutely no journalistic merit whatsoever ..."
Are you serious? You don't think a guy who kills his pregnant wife so he can pursue an affair with another woman is a story worth hearing about? I do!
8 - Eric Olsen
sure, but perhaps not the exclusion of most everything else