I don't think anybody is shocked that certain news outlets play favorites. And I'm not talking about the obvious sites dedicated to one issue/party/conspiracy/trend of the moment. I'm talking about some of the contenders, backed by large amounts of revenue and unfortunately even worse amounts of ethics. Yes, I'm thinking directly of FOX with their pandering, contemptible and barely coherent Bill O'Reilly. Although to be fair it seems like most cable news outlets have become nothing more than a well-dressed third-grade class, with less maturity.
Now, I've been a fan of CNN for a long time, mostly since it became a habit and they seemed to provide interesting coverage. I visit their site at least once a day to check in on news and events, but I have to admit that I thought the percentage of useless fluff to useful information has been increasing in the last couple of years. I wasn't actually measuring it or anything, it was just a hunch.
Well, I ran across this today at Daily Kos - SCREW CNN (w/ graphics) [PG edition]. They took the front page of the CNN site and dissected it to display what was actual news and everything else. Sure, CNN could have been having an "off" day and they just happened to have a bad ratio when this was done. And yes, Kos isn't exactly a neutral third party in the state of the world, but it doesn't mean they are automatically inaccurate. Yeah, it's possible this was a one-off for CNN, but it seems very unlikely with the state of modern media. This feels more like a confirmation of what I think a lot of regular readers have been experiencing and it's not just CNN.
I guess it's not too surprising when you consider marketing has become such a major factor in news outlets (and I'm not just talking about the flashy graphics and theme music, though it's a part of it). Broadcast journalism has become increasing amounts of ad material, focus on entertainment/gossip stories, 30-second sound bites for the ADD generation and an ever-present shrill voiced talking head that can do one thing and one thing only - Yip like a small, annoying poodle. No substance, nothing real to add to the conversation or the debate. Just good ol' fashioned antagonism, bias and ad hominem attacks. And let's not even get into the level of insincerity, smugness and vanity displayed by the worst offenders (which range across ALL of the channels).
This is obviously going to continue for a while since there is a significant part of the viewing audience that is just hungry for style and hot air masked as news. It's a little unfortunate, but I guess we only have ourselves to blame, the media outlets are only giving us what we seem to respond to as consumers. Why get the depressing, brutal truth of real news when instead you can be spoon fed some drunken Hollywood starlet's latest nipple flash?
Hell, I remember when shows like "A Current Affair" used to be complete tabloid fodder and a bit of a joke to "real" journalists. But the laugh was on them as the owners of the news divisions watched the market share increase for gossip journalism and instead of keeping the course with substance, they chose an adopt and extend policy towards these tabloid shows. Flash forward a couple of years and what was once merely third-rate reporting found on some pre-prime time gossip show became front page stories in 52 media markets.
So to condemn the media is surely to condemn ourselves. It hasn't always been this way and the public is comprised of groups of followers, so I wonder what it will take to change the focus - us or them?
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