United Airlines just pulled off the business equivalent of a bloodless coup d’etat by using bankruptcy protection to simultaneously shaft 120,000 employees and the American taxpayer, North Korea is engaging in nuclear saber-rattling, and there are anti-US riots in Afghanistan.
So, with their sense of what is really important CNN, MSNBC, and FOX have spent the last five hours discussing a Cessna that veered off course in Washington, DC and was subsequently grounded without incident.
Now, on MSNBC, they are discussing whether or not the media may have over-reacted to the story. Jon Stewart is right- these people are bad for America. It is time to start breaking cameras and knocking heads.
MSNBC just used their blog segment to discuss the Michael Jackson trial, Jennifer Wilbanks action dolls, and King Tut.
Did someone slip me the brown acid?
Mr Furious
Who’s got the indelible ink on their hand from pulling the false alarm?
Halffasthero
I love the media. It’s a good thing they are around to tell me what is truly important.
Andrei
“MSNBC just used their blog segment to discuss the Michael Jackson trial, Jennifer Wilbanks action dolls, and King Tut.”
Dude… you have the King Tut fluff piece not two stories down from this one. And your most prominent ads feature BeautifulPeople(tm) for the requisite MSM type eye-candy.
I know you’re a lone blogger doing it on your personal time, and I agree that the far too many people seemed to want to tuck their heads into the sand these days, but come on…
Pot? Kettle? Color involved?
Stormy70
But John, we need the media to tell us what to think about the Great Issues of the Day. We are supposed to wait for the pundits to talk down to us, before we make up our minds. I thought you knew this.
John Cole
I know you’re a lone blogger doing it on your personal time…
Dude. Precisely. Your point?
Shawn
Earlier I caught a 30 second blurb about our newly amended Constitution. The media cut away to cover a misguided airplane, but I got a few seconds of it…
THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION
We the Corporations of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Aristocratic Capitalist Elite, establish our supremacy, insure domestic Poverty, provide for the common servitude, promote the general Plunder of national resources, and secure the Blessings of Wealth to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Too bad the media hasn’t done anymore coverage on this. It looked like it might have been kind of important. Did anyone else catch it?
Seriously, though, yesterday I mentioned the recent Downing Street memo to someone who regularly follows the news and reads multiple news sites daily. He had never heard of it! The memo has been all over the blogs and international news since May 1. It’s getting so we have to read the international news or blogs to find out important news.
Rick
So, the corporations have gotten together to horn in on Big Government’s turf? That might even violate some patent right.
Interesting? Time to take to the mattresses, Clemenza.
Cordially…
ppgaz
I totally agree, and have been saying for years, that MSM (now cable) is entirely rating and profit driven. This does not mean that they can’t be trusted …. they can: They can be trusted to serve THEIR OWN INTERESTS at all times.
Why this continues to surprise people, I have no idea.
But the good news is that as they make themselves less and less relevant, doors of opportunity to relevance elsewhere are opened … held open with door stops …. opened by uniformed doormen who will carry your bags.
People, slowly, will learn to ignore these yapping dogs and turn elsewhere for information. Check the ratings …. this has already happened. It’s a trend that is reversible only by doing what Katie Couric — of all people — suggested recently: Put the focus back on hard news.
They won’t do that, of course …. but someone will, and then the quest for hard news will beat a new path to the new doors.
Meanwhile … we have the Bush administration, whose existence and whose entire “look” depends on a media who care more about Jennifer Wilbanks and lost Cessna pilots than they do about anything really important.
Yes, eat your livers. But at the same time, realize that the situation is transitory. All this will pass, in the fullness of time.
Andrei
“Dude. Precisely. Your point?”
That you reap what you sow.
If you want those around you to live to higher standards, show some higher standards yourself by killing the gaudy Blogads crap, and stop running the fluff pieces like the King Tut story as primary items. It’s not like people come here to read that stuff anyway, as my lurking here in the past two months has led me to conclude and the number of comments on items like the United piece or other politcal pieces seems to indicate. It’s apparent they come here laregly to discuss topics set to a higher standard and where they can get away from more of the drivel on the web.
You can design your web site to still allow you to run fluff pieces but feature less them far less prominently you know.
Stormy70
Whoa, Andrei, this is not your blog. I have been reading this site for years, and I like the fluff mixed with politics. I like the favorite movie threads, and the fun stuff, and I click on some of those blog ads. If you want higher standards, then start your own pristine, perfect blog. John is stating his opinions on his own blog, he doesn’t have to live up to some arbitrary “higher standard”.
Gatchaman
The Media in action:
Step 1: Hype a story – best if story is of trivial or no importance
Step 2: Wonder how the “media” could have hyped such a story — as if they weren’t involved.
Rinse and repeat.
Gatchaman
It’s getting so we have to read the international news or blogs to find out important news.
It has been like that for some time. While my wife and I get ready for work we have on the BBC news on BBC America. No I know many here may have problems with the perceived bias of the BBC, but in 20 minutes* they deliver more news than you could get watching CNN/MSNBC/Fox all day. And I mean ALL news – international, domestic (sans-car chases), science/tech, and even the occasional entertainment. Beleive me, all that needs to be said about Jacko’s trial can be said in 15 seconds.
My latest pet peave is the disturbing habit of the cable news channels to devote time to a national weather map. I mean if you live in Billings or Boise, do you feaking really care if its raining in Boston or hot in Miami? Waste of freaking time – or is that the point?
*Sadly, the same can be said of the news segment of the Howard Stern show.
dhw
Andrei:
Check this out for an excellent defence of the coverage of ‘fluff pieces’ here (in the [shudder] blogosphere).
sidereal
“that MSM (now cable) is entirely rating and profit driven”
And remember that there are two components to profit: revenue and cost. Most MSM critics have focused on the revenue angle. . that they (theoretically) get more eyeballs with sensationalism. Personally, I think the cost side is even more important. The BBC does such good reporting because they have an enormous budget, because they’re a government arm. What’s cheaper, sending a reporter to cover Iraq on the ground or having your talking heads gnash their teeth about Wilbanks for half an hour behind a desk?
KC
John, you’re absolutely right. I can’t even watch cable news anymore because it feels so worthless. It’s like the cable outlets have forgotten what news reporting is and have chosen to air Scream and Spin Talking Head Theatre, America’s Missing and Most Degenerate, Unusual Events, and Our Favorite Popstar Fuckups, 24 hours a day. Honestly, it’s almost an insult.
Andrei
“If you want higher standards, then start your own pristine, perfect blog.”
I actually do have my own blog, but it’s built around desinger issues (which is what I do all day) and a moderate amount of side stuff I like to do like poker. It’s unfortunately been stagnant for about 6 months as I’ve been swamped with a new client that has eaten nearely all of my blogging time. One of these days I’ll start it up again…
I linked it this time on my name. But if that’s not working, here it is as well: http://www.designbyfire.com
Outside of that, the point I was trying to make is that Cole has a site that seems to get a reasonable amount of traction from both sides of the politcal aisle. A good thing imho as places like Little Green Footballs, Freepers, and DailyKos feel too entrenched in views that will never seem to budge. Further, Cole makes a reaonable amount of interesting and insightful comments, many of which I find myself agreeing with.
But when one complains or points out issues as he does, then proceeds to break those rules himself, well… sure. It’s his own blog, he can do what he wants and maybe no one cares, but it’s just a tad disingenious in my opinion.
It’s not a big deal to me by the way. I was just pointing out how for a couple of days Balloon-Juice was occupied with that creepy King Tut photo that the entire blogosphere was spammed by, a complete and total distraction from the more important issues (imho) on this site.
John Cole
Andrei- There is a big difference between me and the MSM, and this site and MSNBC.
I am not reporting news- I am commenting on it. Very rarely am I doing anything but linking to something reported by the media and discussing it. When I am, I am usually talking about something that interests me.
On the other hand, MSNBC and CNN call themselves news outfits, something I am not pretendingto be.
CaseyL
I stopped watching TV news altogether quite a while ago. I tuned back in once in a while during the November elections, and could NOT believe how bad it was; I mean, even beyond my wildest dreams of ‘bad.’
There’s a line in a Star Trek novel by John Ford that describes it perfectly: watching TV news is like watching a political indoctrination channel for children.
S.W. Anderson
With the exception of Lou Dobbs, CNN can’t be taken seriously as an ethical, professional news organization. Maybe once upon a time but not any more.
It’s infotainment. It’s People Magazine of the Airwaves. It’s Soap Opera Segments With Paula Zahn. It’s Grub For Fox News Viewers.
CNN has sold out, apparently due to its compulsion to protect access by carrying water for the powers that be in GOP-occupied D.C. And it’s haunted by cable TV’s answer to “Night of the Living Dead,” Bob Novak.
Equally awful, CNN has somehow managed to intensify its worst traits and practices, beginning with exhibiting, weekly now, all news judgment you might expect from a band of brain-dead burned-out meth addicts.