What We Want? Maybe Not

Is the media giving its audience what it wants? This is the big question.
And while everyone has their own opinions on the matter, most intelligent people are hoping, for the sake of what it says about our society, the answer is no. Yet, most of the country belongs to a different, economic, geographic and racial class than I do, so it could very well be that fires and celebrity news are what interests them.
This question has become even more poignant in the last two weeks with the media frenzy around John Karr and his noninvolvement in murdering Jon Benet. Why did the media go so overboard in covering it? Were people really that interested in the case?
Maybe not! Although I know it is no way scientific, according to an AOL poll conducted throughout the day yesterday,79% of the 107,531 people who voted said the coverage of the John Karr case was extremely excessive. The poll then asked voters about other hyped up court cases such as Martha Stewart's trial last year, Kobe Bryant's rape scandal and the Michael Jackson debacle. While the numbers varied, the overwhelming majority voted that the media coverage was extremely excessive each time.
Too bad for the media! If they want to continue broadcasting fake news and sensational stories they are going to have to come with a new excuse.

Not Surprised

When asked what he does for a laugh, Pat Buchanan replied:
"I read the newspapers. There's so much silliness and nonsense going on." (Time Magazine August 28, 2006)

Although true in general, this statement is particularly applicable to the trivial subject matter that has been preoccupying the media for the last few weeks. Mainstream newspapers and broadcast networks have been getting more and more ‘tabloidesque’ by the day as they report on John Karr and the Jon Benet Ramsey case in grotesque detail.

While I can understand why people would be interested in finally finding out who killed Jon Benet, even though it happened ten years ago, that does not make it a news story (as opposed to a human interest or features story) and definitely does not make it headline worthy news. Additionally, such a thorough report is not necessary. While it may have been appropriate to mention Karr's arrest, and if it were to get that far, which it now never will, his sentencing, the public does need to know everything about his past and his present. Did we really need to know how his first night in jail went? CBS News thinks so. In fact, the website has posted 14 articles on this story in the last week! Even more incredulous is that three of these articles have been posted since the announcement was made that he will not be charged with Jon Benet’s murder (at which point no one should care about this anymore), leaving everyone to wonder when this media circus will finally end.

Yet, I cannot say I am surprised by the news flurry around this story. Perhaps because they think it is what the public wants, the media has been known to blow up and over report this type of human-interest story. Anybody remember Elizabeth Smart? How about Natalie Holloway? While their abductions were and are tragic, the around the clock news coverage they both received for months was excessive. Even over a year later, the news cycle stopped this past summer when one of the former suspects in the Holloway case was spotted. A boy hanging around a hotel is not groundbreaking news. To be honest, if the public gets away with only about two weeks worth of coverage on this nonsense they should consider themselves lucky.

In an exclusive interview to People Magazine on August 16th, Jennifer Aniston said:

"I'm not engaged and I don't have a ring and I haven't been proposed to. Normally we don't even acknowledge these things because they're endless, at this point. The thing that got me was that… My dad calls and he says, 'Honey, it's on the CNN crawl,' and I'm going, 'Wait a second!' When it starts to travel over into the Today show and CNN and supposedly reliable and accurate news programs, then you just go, 'This is insane.' People are getting fed a lot of bull."

Although it is somewhat ironic that this statement was posted on a website which considers Tom Cruise's engagement and Britney Spear’s pregnancy news, that does not diminish the accuracy of Aniston’s statement. Although many may have thought it impossible, the media has reached an all-new low.

Usually, the criticism launched against news broadcasts is what type of stories they have featured. For example, while it is probably true that the fire/accident/arrest that I am assuming ABC, NBC or CBS aired on last night's evening broadcast occurred, that does not merit it the title ‘breaking news.’ In the scheme of what is occurring nationally and internationally on a daily basis, the aforementioned events are petty and insignificant.

Yet, viewers can now add another grievance to the list of things wrong with today’s media. They are not only relaying unimportant stories, they are now relaying false stories and passing them off as fact.

And while this is disturbing on so many levels, to me, one question overrides the rest. If CNN cannot report on something as simple as an engagement correctly, how can they be trusted to report more complex world events accurately? If what we consider credible news sources are shaping up to be no better than the tabloids, where is there left to go for important and truthful hard hitting news?