A couple of weeks ago the front page of the local paper announced that $15,000 in iPods had been stolen in a wee-hours smash-and-grab burglary. The article went on to talk about how iPods were a hot target for burglars and thieves, and so on. It wasn’t so much a news article as it was a FUD article — fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Make us scared, make us worry, make us buy tomorrow’s paper.
A week later the same paper buried an article describing how police tracked down the burglars and recovered all but two of the stolen iPods. The perps are in jail or juvie awaiting trial, and the stolen property is back in the hands of those to whom it rightfully belongs. But that article isn’t SCARY enough, so it’s back in the “police beat” section of the paper.
*sigh*
–Howard
People talk about left/right bias in the media, but for the most part, that doesn’t have much to do with it. It’s all about the sensation they can generate that will play best with the most people.
On a somewhat related tangent, I do like the signs posted in stores around here… “Buying cigarettes for minors isn’t just wrong… it’s ILLEGAL!”
*sigh*
Well, it’s true.
Sure. But the emphasis.
It’s sorta like saying, “It’s really not all that bad, but it’s ILLEGAL, so you shouldn’t.”
I thought Garfield was what is wrong with newspapers these days.
Seriously, though, it’s sad that good news is no news. You’d think that the cops nailing the guys responsible for a front page crime story would deserve at least a column started on the front page.
Perhaps our news media has grown too fond of criticizing the boys in blue, and prefers to focus on their failures over displaying their triumphs. Understandable, especially post-McCarthy, but not always a good idea, especially when, as now, it leads to fearmongering.
If you look at it closer, however, the message is not just FUD. It’s the “Why we need more police, more laws, more ‘government protection'”
Right or left wing, they both want more power over as many people as possible. It’s a fear, I think – the fear of people making their own decisions.
Sigh.
I see far, far too many examples just like that in the news these days.
So if the turn-of-the-20th-century investigative journalists were “muckrakers”, does that make these bozos “FUDruckers”?
I feel your pain Howard. And I actually work with them.
News, and in particular television news, is all about what sells. Sadly, sensationalism draws viewers and readers. Without them, the business dies. Some local TV stations have taken their local news off in favor of Jeopardy or MASH or whatever else they can fill the time with.
This is partially because of the headaches in producing news. But mostly it’s money. You can spend $10 million a year in a medium sized market to put on news and make about $12 million in advertising.
Or you can spend around $1.5 million to buy some syndicated programing and make around $4 million in advertising. And all that earnings without the headaches of contract negotiations with your on air talent, union headaches from your technical staff, angry calls from your viewers because you slammed their favorite subject, lawyers threatening to sue after every broadcast day, politicians taking aim at you because of your stories, having to maintain a an obsessively politically correct face on and camera behind the scenes at all times, and on and on and on…
Wasn’t it nice of the FCC to back away from the community service requirements on the broadcast licenses?
FUDruckers and The End of Times…
“If it bleeds it leads…”
I hate that. The media these days is about sensationalism and making money for giant corporate conglomerates, not news. Combine that with the aggressively obsessive “celebrity news” “journalists” (paparazzi), and I could be ranting here all week.
Yellow journalism, muckraking, etc. has heralded massive societal collapses (or at least shakeups) in the past, and the cynical semi-alarmist in me says this is just another sign that we’re due.
*sigh*
All this from a guy who aspires to be a freelance journalist/novelist. Then again, I once wanted to be a politician, so maybe I’m just a glutton for punishment.
Re: FUDruckers and The End of Times…
At least you’re improving your goals
waaaay off topic but.. is there a schlock http://www.frappr.com community? ^-^;
Yeah, but I can’t find it. I created it a month or two ago, I think.
That’s interesting. Last night in my English class we had a class debate/writing project about whether the media is truthful, and about whether or not the media is there to entertain. Most of the ideas brought up was that media decides what to “air” by what they think the public wants to see.
Check our Bernard Goldberg’s book, “Bias.” It pretty well sums up what is going on these days.
They may air stuff based on what they think the public wants to see, but what they’re doing is airing stuff based on what the public doesn’t want to miss.
There’s a difference.
I want to see lightness and happiness and joy. There’s a lot of that in the world. More, in fact, than most people suspect. But I can afford to not hear about that stuff, because it’s not OUT TO GET ME OMG THERE’S ARSENIC IN THE WATER AND RADIATION IN THE SOIL AND DETAILS AT ELEVEN.
Does that make sense?
–Howard
By the power vested in me, for the next ten minutes, I make you an assignment editor
Here’s a mental exercise for you.
You are on the assignment desk at a major 24/7 cable network. Within ten minutes the following lands in your lap:
Okay, by the power vested in me, I make you the AE d’jour. You only have time to shoot, edit, proof and air six of these. You have to decide what will attract and keep your viewers. Your ratings and your job is riding on what you choose.
Which Six?
Re: By the power vested in me, for the next ten minutes, I make you an assignment editor
-In about an hour, local police in Anthills, Kansas are going to hold a presser announcing the arrest of four students that were preparing a Columbine Style attack.
-Your affiliate in Los Angeles is feeding you live helicopter footage of a police chase.
-The president will be holding a briefing in 90 minutes detailing how schools and hospitals have been secured and reopened in Baghdad.
-The Red Cross will spend all day at a shopping mall in New Orleans passing out food, clothing and building supplies to returning residents.
-Police in Boise, ID arrest a female teacher for giving advanced sex education labs to selected students.
-The Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Texas announces they will be conducting a clean up Thanksgiving Day clean along the Colorado River near Austin, Texas involving over 300 members and their families.
-The Ralph Nader group announces a press conference in about two hours to reveal more union busting treachery at General Motors.
-Several of your sources are telling you a major drug scandal will break in the National Women’s Basketball Association sometime today.
-You get an anonymous fax complete with engineering and environmental studies, showing that a shopping mall in Toledo is saturated with asbestos dust and management is doing nothing to clean it up or warn the public.
-There is a press release from the Center for Disease Control saying they will hold a briefing showing that cigarette smoking among minors has dropped 9% in the last three years. They are crediting anti-smoking campaigns aimed at teens.
Only six?
I lead with the live footage of the police chase, because it’s exciting and it’s live (if I wait, the footage is no longer live, and we lose the coolness).
After that, to kill some time we go with the Gay and Lesbian stuff. Some feel-good material as an intermission between cop stories.
Okay, next we go with the students arrested who were planning the school shooting. This is important news–not because it’s scary violence, but because it demonstrates the effectiveness of today’s police in PREVENTING these events. Definitely downplay the whole “today’s kids are EVIL!” aspect, and mention nothing about all the violent videogames, rap/heavy metal music, and rated-R movies the kids may have used. Play up the grateful parents of classmates and the cool investigation process.
I will not shoot the asbestos story, but I will investigate it further to see if the fax can be attributed and corroborated.
Likewise, I’ll wait until the WNBA drug story breaks before reporting on it–unless I can research it fast enough to break the scoop myself, which is unlikely and probably a waste of time and money.
The fourth story, then, is the arrest of the sex-ed teacher, because that kind of stuff really sells. Sex, students, etc… Gold.
Story number five is the Pres, since he’ll be on by now, and he’s always news, whether it’s just choking on small food products or discussing the war in Iraq.
The last story is not the Ralph Nader stuff (he’s slow news, plus it’s a continuing story, BORING); nor is it the Red Cross, since everybody and their brother has done several reports on Katrina charity, including our own station probably. And so the last story is either the WNBA story, or, if that didn’t break, the smoking one (end on hopeful note).
Re: By the power vested in me, for the next ten minutes, I make you an assignment editor
Are you in the business? I’ll wait a couple days to see if anyone else (Howard?) tries this before I give my opinions.
Re: By the power vested in me, for the next ten minutes, I make you an assignment editor
Naw, I’m not in the business. And I was flattered you asked, until I realized that could definitely be an insult in some circles. Ah, well, whatever. This was a fun little exercise. And I learned a lot, too!
(Specifically I learned that Ralph Nader was still alive and doing stuff.)
Re: By the power vested in me, for the next ten minutes, I make you an assignment editor
Still alive, yes. Aside from making sure a Democrat doesn’t make it into the White House, we don’t hear a whole lot out of him. I don’t know if he’s ever thrown his weight around for or against the UAW.
What I wrote above was pure fiction based on my experience for the purpose of the exercise.
P.S. Almost forgot. Which story is your lead and what do you close with?
Strange how popular CSI is and yet the real life catching of criminals can’t get a decent write-up in the media.
Another, scary, thought is that this bias towards the sensationalist aspect is actually glamourising crime to some extent. “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”.
Still, score one for the police on this case 🙂
Odd, that we like resolutions in cop shows but don’t demand them in crime reporting.
In regards to your icon: WHY?
Apparently, according to at least some of my friends, this icon really suits me.
Or, if you’re making a film reference, I don’t know. My jaw is still waving in the wind and my brain is still trying to come to terms.
“I am like a leaf in the wind.”
“…watch how I soar.” *sniff*
Problem with resolution in crime reporting…from crime to perp detection can be a short time. Usually (in the UK at least) that’s where it stops. From detention to trial is months and the story dies on route.
iPods are the root of all evil?