Is Bad News truly better?

[Guest]

This morning CNN is giving serious news coverage to the impending return of Discovery.

CNN even plays solemn theme music when they toss up the shuttle background pic, just like they always do for sad events (9/11, Reagan's death, and at first any discussion of the war in Iraq).

AND they will be covering the landing tomorrow morning. Live. Non-stop coverage.

Obviously, the uncertain status of the shuttle is making everyone nervous, but I cannot help but feel that the news crews are giddy about the chance to cover a real disaster.

Live. Non-stop coverage.


My thoughts are with the crew and their families.

 

[Guest]

This morning CNN is giving serious news coverage to the impending return of Discovery.

CNN even plays solemn theme music when they toss up the shuttle background pic, just like they always do for sad events (9/11, Reagan's death, and at first any discussion of the war in Iraq).

AND they will be covering the landing tomorrow morning. Live. Non-stop coverage.

Obviously, the uncertain status of the shuttle is making everyone nervous, but I cannot help but feel that the news crews are giddy about the chance to cover a real disaster.

Live. Non-stop coverage.


My thoughts are with the crew and their families.

Media thought proccess:

The shuttle lands safely. YAY! Happy ending. Story over. High ratings for the day.

The shuttle breaks up on re-entry, all astronauts killed. YAY!! Two more years of creating conspiracy, laying blame, getting people fired, forcing resignations..... Oh, and if a few people commit suicide over it, that's even better. High ratings for MONTHS!! Billions of advertising dollars!

I'd rather see them land safely and put an end to all the speculation. The problems they have experienced on this mission have happened on every mission since the first shuttle launch. The shuttle losses somewhere in the neighborhood of 80-100 heat sheild tiles on every mission. The filler material the found hanging loose has no doubt extruded from the gaps before too. The difference is this time there wer cameras looking at it and several spacewalks to inspect things. I think the press, as usual, is blowing everything WAY out of proportin just for a story.

 

[rgraham666]

I think the press, as usual, is blowing everything WAY out of proportin just for a story.

And we're letting them get away with it. It's not like most of us are changing the channel, writing angry letters to them or, most effective, telling advertisers we're not buying their products because of the way the news is presented.

 

[Guest]

And we're letting them get away with it. It's not like most of us are changing the channel, writing angry letters to them or, most effective, telling advertisers we're not buying their products because of the way the news is presented.

Maybe you aren't.

 

[Guest]

I changed the channel.

I think Cartoon Network is having an Ed, Edd and Eddy marathon today.

 

[rgraham666]

Maybe you aren't.

I don't watch TV. No point to it.

 

[Guest]

I don't watch TV. No point to it.

There are a couple of shows I like but I rarely get the chance to sit down and watch. I try hard to catch The Daily Show M-Th, though.

Our kids enjoy some of the Cartoon Network shows.

We do have limited TV viewing time because there are so many other things for them to do around our house.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

I changed the channel.

I think Cartoon Network is having an Ed, Edd and Eddy marathon today.

I like Billy and Mandy much better.

I watched with trepidation as the shuttle went up again, not that I had much choice. I was in the Rheum's office at the time, I was hoping things went well.

I'm not sure I can watch them come back, I never really got over seeing Challenger and the aftermath.

I wanted to shove the model of the space shuttle Dan Rather was using up his ass.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

My considered opinion is that it osen'tt ake a great deal of journalistic skill to report on this. You don't have to investigate anything, you don't have to do any work, you can just report it. A trained monkey could deliver most of what you get and those like Sarrah and Dran, who feel genuine concern have probably done more real investigating than those reporting it.

Media circuses are nothing new. The overhyped ones of recent years are. They are basically, manufactured news. Taking something perhaps worthy of cursory mention (Michael jackson trial) and blowing it up to something of a self perpetuating crisis of proportion far exceeding it's merits as news.

There are no Walter Cronkites, Eward R Murrows, or Ernie piles. Just gaggles of talkingheads and writers who rarely strive to write on more than a 6th grade level. The vetting processes have become so bad that Vicious hatchet work like Rather & Mapes or out and aout Fraud andplagirism al la the times regularly make it to production.

With the polarization in this country, news print has become almost exclusive editorial. Even those pieces presented as honest reporting are so full of spin and political corectness they are litle more than adulation or aprobation wrapped in the trapings of News.

Your real answer Sarrah is not that bad news is better. It's that news that tells itself, with no work or intelligence on the part of the journalists is required that is better.

my 2 cents.


Thoughts with the crew and their loved ones.