Trash Culture. My tipping point.

[shereads]

12:15 pm. Breaking news, courtesy of local NBC affiliate WTVJ Miami:


Reporter: "...According to the Broward County Medical Examiner's testimony, Anna Nicole's body is beginning to discolor."

Anchorman: "I understand that the rate of decomposition is excelerated because of the long delay before embalming."

Reporter: "That's right, Tony."

Anchorman, to camera: "You can find out more about the battle for custody of Anna Nicole's body at NBC-six-dot-net, under 'Entertainment.'"



This broke my sleaze meter.

It didn't exactly enhance my enjoyment of lunch, either. Who wants the rest of this ham sandwich?

 

[Guest]

12:15 pm. Breaking news, courtesy of local NBC affiliate WTVJ Miami:


Reporter: "...According to the Broward County Medical Examiner's testimony, Anna Nicole's body is beginning to discolor."

Anchorman: "I understand that the rate of decomposition is excelerated because of the long delay before embalming."

Reporter: "That's right, Tony."

Anchorman, to camera: "You can find out more about the battle for custody of Anna Nicole's body at NBC-six-dot-net, under 'Entertainment.'"



This broke my sleaze meter.

It didn't exactly enhance my enjoyment of lunch, either. Who wants the rest of this ham sandwich?

Believe it or not, in the olden days, those news breaks used to actually contain news. The idea is you'd tune into the news show to hear more.

It was : "Snow in tonight's forecast."

Now it is : "Blizzard or clear? Find out at 11"

It was : Radar malfunctions at airport.

Now it is : Is it Geese or ICBMS? News at 11"

 

[shereads]

My e-mail to NBC 6:

Your station's coverage of the decomposition of Anna Nicole Smith's body is far and away the most comprehensive. Today's announcement that the body is beginning to 'discolor' might not be appreciated by some, coming as it did during the lunch hour. But in my view, a wasted pork loin is a small price to pay for journalism of this quality. Edward R. Murrow would be proud...Just for clarification: Tony Segreto explained the need for live coverage of police chases as a public safety issue. Are we in similar danger from Anna Nicole's decaying carcass? What can we do to protect ourselves and our loved ones?

 

[mjl2010]

This is why

I seldom watch local or network news or even listen to it on the radio. Forced to watch at my inlaws one night, I noted that half of each nine minute segment was focused on sucking you into watching the next segment. The lead stories were no more than two minutes, then 30 to 45 seconds for a few followups and a full three minutes of advertising upcoming segments.

This isn't news folks. These are sound bites with nothing said, nothing resolved. Nothing. You're wasting your time. It's all about selling you on wasting your time so they can throw ads at you and sell more ads to their sponsors.

Use a stopwatch sometime and keep track of what you actually can count as news. You won't get much in a half hour.

MJL

 

[3113]

It didn't exactly enhance my enjoyment of lunch, either. Who wants the rest of this ham sandwich?

Well thanks so much for sharing! I guess tunafish is off my lunch menu for today....

 

[shereads]

I seldom watch local or network news or even listen to it on the radio.

I know, I know...I should boycott the bastards and get my news from responsible sources like the MacNeil-Lehrer Report and The Onion.

But if I didn't watch local TV news, I'd never fully understand Miami politics. Case in point: any newspaper can tally the number of city commissioners who are under investigation, indictment or in the process of plea bargaining. But without the broadcast media, you'd have to settle for transcripts of taped conversations with undercover agents posing as hit-men, which pale in comparison to hearing the real thing, along with hidden camera footage where applicable.

I wouldn't have missed one ex-mayor's threatening answering-machine message to the Miami Herald for all the world.

"You people don't know who you're beeping with. You don't beep with the mayor and get away with it."

God, I haven't thought of him in ages. I wonder if he's still alive, and if not, how rapidly is he decomposing?

 

[oggbashan]

I once did an extended study with an evening class group on news stories in the UK media. Each week every student would pick a particular news outlet - local or national TV news, local or natonal radio, local or national newspaper and analyse how many news stories were covered in each outlet.

TV news, even if a 24 hour channel, covered fewer news stories than the most trashy newspaper. In between the 54 pairs of breasts featured in one newspaper's edition they mananged a much higher number of news stories than the 24 hour TV channel. Compared with the basic news programme on the BBC or ITV the trashy newspaper had ten times as many stories.

Whether the stories were accurate? That was another study. Our first attempt at analysing the same news story from different TV channels and different newspapers ended with us arguing "What is truth?". When we expanded the study to include foreign, including foreign language, newspapers we could only agree that "What is news?" varies country by country and media outlet by media outlet.

One of my daughters is a reporter for a local paper. She files between 70 and 90 news stories a week of which 40 to 50 get printed. The news editor decides which should appear in that week's edition. The local radio station, owned by the newspaper group, cherry-pick her stories and broadcast short snappy versions of them before they appear in print... Cue one annoyed daughter.

Og

 

[mjl2010]

Yeah more than one radio station here does a similar thing in the morning. They take the local paper and leaf through it on air, making points about this or that story.

"Oh look at this gem on page four. Some local guy is going to jail for window peeping on his wife..."

MJL

 

[Guest]

I saw a newspaper article once where they took the entire copy of a 30 minute news program and showed it in the paper. It took only 1 and 1/2 columns of news paper space.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

My e-mail to NBC 6:

Your station's coverage of the decomposition of Anna Nicole Smith's body is far and away the most comprehensive. Today's announcement that the body is beginning to 'discolor' might not be appreciated by some, coming as it did during the lunch hour. But in my view, a wasted pork loin is a small price to pay for journalism of this quality. Edward R. Murrow would be proud...Just for clarification: Tony Segreto explained the need for live coverage of police chases as a public safety issue. Are we in similar danger from Anna Nicole's decaying carcass? What can we do to protect ourselves and our loved ones?

*dies laughing* Urgh, I hope I don't "discolor".

 

[TxRad]

*dies laughing* Urgh, I hope I don't "discolor".

What if you're discolored to start with......

I think I might be dead and don't know it.....

 

[mckai777]

My e-mail to NBC 6:

Your station's coverage of the decomposition of Anna Nicole Smith's body is far and away the most comprehensive. Today's announcement that the body is beginning to 'discolor' might not be appreciated by some, coming as it did during the lunch hour. But in my view, a wasted pork loin is a small price to pay for journalism of this quality. Edward R. Murrow would be proud...Just for clarification: Tony Segreto explained the need for live coverage of police chases as a public safety issue. Are we in similar danger from Anna Nicole's decaying carcass? What can we do to protect ourselves and our loved ones?

Jesus, but you've got a keen sense of irony! I think I have a girl crush.

 

[shereads]

I once did an extended study with an evening class group on news stories in the UK media. Each week every student would pick a particular news outlet - local or national TV news, local or natonal radio, local or national newspaper and analyse how many news stories were covered in each outlet.

TV news, even if a 24 hour channel, covered fewer news stories than the most trashy newspaper. In between the 54 pairs of breasts featured in one newspaper's edition they mananged a much higher number of news stories than the 24 hour TV channel. Compared with the basic news programme on the BBC or ITV the trashy newspaper had ten times as many stories.

Whether the stories were accurate? That was another study. Our first attempt at analysing the same news story from different TV channels and different newspapers ended with us arguing "What is truth?". When we expanded the study to include foreign, including foreign language, newspapers we could only agree that "What is news?" varies country by country and media outlet by media outlet.

One of my daughters is a reporter for a local paper. She files between 70 and 90 news stories a week of which 40 to 50 get printed. The news editor decides which should appear in that week's edition. The local radio station, owned by the newspaper group, cherry-pick her stories and broadcast short snappy versions of them before they appear in print... Cue one annoyed daughter.

Og

It makes sense that newspapers are able to do more 'real' news. Paper is cheap. TV time is limited, and worth a lot of money - at least in the USA where broadcasters rely on advertising revenues.

They say we get the government we deserve. I suppose we also get the news coverage we deserve. Unfortunately, "we" means the majority of whichever audience is most valuable to whoever pays the bills. Where commercial media are concerned, that means nobody really matters except the group with the highest propensity to buy stuff, relative to their expendable income. White males, 18-34, have been the prime time TV audience-of-choice for a long time in the U.S.

In other words, whoever is watching reality TV is also determining the content of the news. Poor Anna Nicole Smith has come full-circle.

A few years ago, her handlers created a cult hit with a reality show that basically just followed her around, drunk or stoned enough that she didn't know or care how big a fool she was made to appear, stumbling her way through an alcoholic haze. In death, she's the star of something similarly morbid and demeaning.

They say she wanted to be like Marilyn Monroe. She probably thought that an early death by drug overdose would make her the same kind of icon. But Marilyn Monroe was the product of a different era. Her death wasn't a national joke.

If there's an upside to all this, it's that future Anna Nicoles won't be tempted to emulate her death. There's nothing very romantic about a daily news update on the condition of your decomposing body.

 

[slyc_willie]

I'm my own reporter

I avoid the regular news stations at all costs. If I want to know something, I'll tune into Fox and CNN, and then do my own research. Half the time, local news only reports the 'flash' content, meaning, what can they show to get more viewers?

Fox and CNN are often just as bad, but at least they delve into the story a bit.

But all this crap about Anna Nicole and Britney . . .

I DON'T FUCKING CARE!!!!

Okay, rant over . . .

 

[S-Des]

If there's an upside to all this, it's that future Anna Nicoles won't be tempted to emulate her death. There's nothing very romantic about a daily news update on the condition of your decomposing body.

Don't underestimate people who are desperate to get on camera, no matter what they have to do. I've never understood the concept, but some people feel any time on camera is worth whatever price you have to pay with your dignity. How do you think the Girls Gone Wild guy became a billionaire?

 

[slyc_willie]

Don't underestimate people who are desperate to get on camera, no matter what they have to do. I've never understood the concept, but some people feel any time on camera is worth whatever price you have to pay with your dignity. How do you think the Girls Gone Wild guy became a billionaire?

Not to mention all those idiots who line up for American Idol auditions . . . .

 

[Guest]

How do you think the Girls Gone Wild guy became a billionaire?

Tequila plus 19 year old girls, 20 lbs. underweight and away from home for the first time.

I'll bet some of those girls don't even remember the cameras until six months later when guys in their Psych classes start whispering about them and pointing.

 

[cumallday]

No matter what form it may take, never underestimate the popularity of the circus sideshow.

 

[S-Des]

Tequila plus 19 year old girls, 20 lbs. underweight and away from home for the first time.

I'll bet some of those girls don't even remember the cameras until six months later when guys in their Psych classes start whispering about them and pointing.

Still, I was around a lot of drunk women when I was that age and they weren't rushing to show me their breasts. I should have brought a camera. I wonder if that's how he got the idea...trying to use the "model" angle to talk women into flashing him ("Wow, you're so pretty...have you ever thought of becoming a model?" ).

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I wanna be discolored when I'm dead. I want people to look in my casket and barf from the sight and stench of rotting flesh. I definately wanna LOOK dead. But that's just me

 

[rgraham666]

I'm so glad I don't watch TV.

 

[slyc_willie]

I'm so glad I don't watch TV.

We would all be smarter if we didn't.

 

[CharleyH]

12:15 pm. Breaking news, courtesy of local NBC affiliate WTVJ Miami:


Reporter: "...According to the Broward County Medical Examiner's testimony, Anna Nicole's body is beginning to discolor."

Anchorman: "I understand that the rate of decomposition is excelerated because of the long delay before embalming."

Reporter: "That's right, Tony."

Anchorman, to camera: "You can find out more about the battle for custody of Anna Nicole's body at NBC-six-dot-net, under 'Entertainment.'"



This broke my sleaze meter.

It didn't exactly enhance my enjoyment of lunch, either. Who wants the rest of this ham sandwich?

LOL!

We could all only wish to die in a Douglas Sirk movie with a film noire spin. She did it, though - bless her!

 

[Liar]

TV news, even if a 24 hour channel, covered fewer news stories than the most trashy newspaper. In between the 54 pairs of breasts featured in one newspaper's edition they mananged a much higher number of news stories than the 24 hour TV channel. Compared with the basic news programme on the BBC or ITV the trashy newspaper had ten times as many stories.

Much easier for them to just take a leaf straight from Reuters than for a TV channel.

 

[McKenna]

I think for some this whole Anna Nicole fiasco is like coming upon a traffic accident: They're fascinated in a macabre, demented way, all the while trying to convince themselves they aren't the type to slow down to view the carnage.

If the decomposition of bodies is the new rage in news reporting, why the hell didn't we have more coverage over James Brown's eventual decline to worm-feed?