I like to put the TV on while I'm getting ready in the morning and catch up on the news. Unfortunately there seems to be very little actual news being shown. I flip around between CNN, Headline News, and the 3 local channels, but it seems like there is less and less REAL news and more and more stupid non-news stories.
For example, this morning, I had to keep changing the channels because all they were talking about was stupid American Idol. No offense to anyone who watches the show, but it's NOT NEWS! No less than 3 different channels were talking about who got voted off. Why is this even on the news? If AI is of any interest to you, then you'd already be watching it, and you'd know who won. And if it's not a show I watch, then why the hell would I be interested in knowing who won?
Meanwhile, there is a war going on. Right? How come I never see any news stories about what's actually happening in Iraq or Afghanistan? I remember when I was a kid, every night on the news there was an update about the Vietnam war, and they ran a daily dead/wounded tally.
What the heck has happened to TV over the years? Do we as a people not want "hard news" anymore? Or are the powers that be hiding something from us and trying to distract us with silly fluff?
People started freaking out that the news was "too negative." Apparently, people want silly fluff.
I agree with you - the AI coverage is ridiculous. I expect it on the Today Show or GMA, but CNN? It was the lead freaking story on cnn.com last night. WTF?
It's hard to find alternative news that's palatable, too. Often it's over-the-top/biased-in-the-other-direction drivel.
Television news, or more accruately, all television programming, is focused on pandering to the lowest common denominator to get the largest audience. The first thing we learned in one of my telecommunications classes in college was that nothing on television is there for the sake of education or entertainment, every single program is nothing more than a vehicle for commercials. The news programs get higher ratings when they run sensational stories, and as I'm sure you all know, higher ratings equal higher advertising dollars.
It sucks for those of us who are not part of the mouth-breathing masses; if we want news about important things that actually matter in our daily lives, we have to work to seek it out. I think it's really pathetic that most people would rather hear about who won an over-hyped talent show than learn anything about our government because "politics are boring." The government has the ability to meddle with every aspect of our lives; American Idol affects no one but the handful of people who appear on the show.
Mainstream media is nothing more than corporate media now. It's all infotainment. This was set in motion when large corporations were allowed to acquire more and more media companies, so now only few people own almost all media outlets, this is media consolidation. So now they have an agenda, and that agenda has nothing to do with the real journalistic news we grew up with in the 70s, it has everything to do with promoting corporations and making money. News departments of networks used to lose money, anchors used to not be paid that well. Now it's a very profitable industry and anchors make millions, and they become the media stars.
Back when Howard Dean was running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and was so wildly popular that it looked like he was going to succeed, he appeared on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews. He told Chris that when he becomes president he was going to put the old laws back in place that prohibited media consolidation and he was going to break up the media corporate conglomerates and turn them back into what they used to be, he'd re-regulate the media.
The very next day, the big media news question of the day was "Why is Howard Dean so angry?" Which is code for "crazy." The last thing the corporate CEOs want is a break up of their media, so they made sure that their "news" outlets painted him in a crazy light, to make people not take him seriously. Then they crucified him during a post-primary rally because he said, "Yeeeaww" into the microphone while he was boosting up the morale of his supporters. Honestly, "Yeeeaww" ruined his chance of being president, but lying us into an evil war for pure profit got Bush the A-OK from the media for YEARS.
Like WW said above, corporations do not want to inform you of facts, they want to lull you to sleep with American Idol. An uninformed public preoccupied with stupid and childish shit can't be bothered to worry about what's really going on, and what's really going on has been the destruction of the middle class and the theft of our democracy so a very few elite can keep getting richer.
The guv is hiding stuff, IMO. They don't want us to know what's really going on. The media doesn't work for the people any more. It's all about big, corporate intereests. I actually feel sorry for today's journalists--they can't do their job any more--at least, not the way journalism was intended to be carried out.
Wag the dog, my friend.
This is why I do not miss having TV. There's nothing on it any more!
This is also why I read a lot. (non-mainstream news, etc.)
Jen M.
Anastasia, I never understood why the media fixated on that Howard Dean shout. I just didn't get it. So what if he said "Yeeow!" during a speech? Now it all makes sense.
CF Scorpio Wrote:I like to put the TV on while I'm getting ready in the morning and catch up on the news. Unfortunately there seems to be very little actual news being shown. I flip around between CNN, Headline News, and the 3 local channels, but it seems like there is less and less REAL news and more and more stupid non-news stories.
For example, this morning, I had to keep changing the channels because all they were talking about was stupid American Idol. No offense to anyone who watches the show, but it's NOT NEWS! No less than 3 different channels were talking about who got voted off. Why is this even on the news? If AI is of any interest to you, then you'd already be watching it, and you'd know who won. And if it's not a show I watch, then why the hell would I be interested in knowing who won?
Meanwhile, there is a war going on. Right? How come I never see any news stories about what's actually happening in Iraq or Afghanistan? I remember when I was a kid, every night on the news there was an update about the Vietnam war, and they ran a daily dead/wounded tally.
What the heck has happened to TV over the years? Do we as a people not want "hard news" anymore? Or are the powers that be hiding something from us and trying to distract us with silly fluff?
OMG CFS You have just spouted off what my DH has been saying now for the past few years.
And I know exactly what your saying about the Americal Idol crap
( no offense to the people who watch it)
I was beginning to think that DH & I were the only TWO people that have
NEVER seen that show!
How is a TV show considered news?
I don't see them reporting on shows like the season Finale of Boston Legal Which IMHO the news should cover as it pertains to THEM, the news media half the time.
But NOOOOOOOO You don't see that... We only see the news reporting on who sung better???
PLEASE give me a fucking break.
But anyway, ITA with you CFS neither TV show is not really news.
AND my DH has been saying that for years.
Where is the real news these days?
So,This is why he gets his news on-line now.
Cause that is where the real news IS these days!.
Update: On CNN and Headline News this morning, the 3 "news" stories I caught were:
1. The mysterious feet washing up on the shore in Canada (OK, that's news!)
2. A chihuahua trapped in a non-accessible part of the house for 5 hours (Only 5 hours? Why is this news? This stuff happens all the time! Get back to me in a couple weeks if the dog is still in there and still alive.)
3. Michelle Obama appearing on "The View", complete with "man on the street" commentaries about her fashion choices. (WTF?)
I know.
And my entertainment "news" every day is: "so and so breeds. So and so breeds. So and so WANTS to breed. a lot." etc.
I don't care whose breeding--I want to know what charities my celebs support, what projects they are working on. Whether or not they are OK after this or that injury or illness. Who gives a crap about their bodily functions?
(I do care about the well being of those celebs I like.)
Jen M.
I still say the Internet killed CNN & all real news.
Like Comic Book guy said on the Simpson's
"I get my news on line like the rest of the world," lol
So if you don't like what you see on CNN turn it off and login
lol
Bittercat: I kept forgetting to say I love your new avatar
"who's", not "whose." Geez. I keep doing that.
TW: Thanks.
TW: It's not the internet that killed news: It's the corporate interests who now run our media. There are plenty of good news outlets out there--both convservative and liberal and some that are neither or in-between--but they are independent publications, so they have smaller budgets and therefore less exposure. You just have to know where to look.
Jen M.
Truckerswife Wrote:I still say the Internet killed CNN & all real news.
Like Comic Book guy said on the Simpson's
"I get my news on line like the rest of the world," lol
So if you don't like what you see on CNN turn it off and login
lol
Bittercat: I kept forgetting to say I love your new avatar
TW: the Internet has nothing to do with it. It was the establishment of the Telecommunications Act in 1996 that allowed corporations to buy up media (thanks, Clinton, the most non-liberal right-leaning Democratic president we ever had). Read my post above. What I said up there is why there is no real news in the mainstream.
And Bittercat is right. There are real news outlets, but you have to dig for them because they aren't owned by huge corporate conglomerations so they don't have the budget to be part of the mainstream infotainment structure. The Nation magazine is one, it's not owned by any big corporation, but it's not huge like Time or Newsweek, so I be you haven't heard of it. Time magazine being owned by Time-Warner, CNN is also owned by Time-Warner. Newsweek magazine is owned by NBC and Microsoft, for example. With such HUGE corporations running media; TV news, news magazines, newspapers, movie studios, TV studios, radio stations, etc., those smaller independent news outlets get buried, so the Internet has actually HELPED real news stay alive. It's just a matter of the consumer, already dazed and hypnotized by fast food and American Idol, to have the presence of mind to do the research and dig it up for themselves.
The blogosphere helps, too.
Jen M.
I would appreciate any links that people could give to real news outlets, especially Canadian or international.
Democracy Now!
Free Speech Radio News
I subscribe to these as podcasts. Democracy Now! also has video.
I really like Free Speech Radio News, it's 30 minutes of headlines and in-depth stories about stuff you don't hear about in the mainstream media. They have correspondents around the country and around the world, so you can hear about the election in Nepal or commentaries from Mumia abu Jamal.
Alas, Yellow Times is no more. That was a great publication!
Jen M.