When did news become so filled with meaningless drivel?  When did it change from something useful to a chorus of talking heads trying to get you to pay them the most attention? As if news anchors are little children vying desperately for a parent’s attention and are willing to say anything at any speed to get it.  I’m not complaining about the commercialization or even sensationalization (I think I just coined a new word) of news, because that has always been there.  From the early part of the 20th century news paper boys would scream out the latest headlines until their vocal cords burst into flames in attempt to get passersby to buy the paper.  News, after all, is a business and I understand and appreciate that.  It’s their news model to which I take exception.

The idea of the scoop has now given away to something more radical; the instant update.  Granted, on major news stories that affect millions the instant update is useful for events such as the Japanese earthquake or the recent events in Muslim countries, but rarely does technological innovation remain the bastion of solid news dissemination.  Now for example, we get instant, to the split-bloody-second, updates of celebrity “news” from websites and those special “news” programs on TV.  A celebrity was in an accident and before the police even arrived at the scene a bystander took a cell phone photo of the person lying on the concrete, bleeding, and sent it to TMZ, which then immediately put the picture on their site.  “Can someone call me a doctor, please?” “Just hold still, my first seven photos of you are blurry.  People have to know it’s you and not some no-name loser that looks like you.”  Imagine the headlines they could have used?  ‘Guess Who’s Bleeding Right Now?’ or ‘If You’re on the Expressway and Have a Band-aid You Can Touch A Star.’

Increasingly, news channels, and I mean all of them, are relying more on instant news gathering processes.  Think of it as the instant gratification of the news channel.  This has landed them in trouble before, namely the 2000 American presidential elections where they couldn’t determine a winner early enough and just decided to wing it and launch the American electoral system into a dismal circus act in front of the supreme court… well, maybe I exaggerate.

The news channels are all relying on common everyday people to send them videos, pictures, emails, strip-a-grams relaying information on news.  I don’t have a problem with news collection in this manner, but news agencies are no longer sifting through this information with critical eye.  Instead, they look at it with the sole purpose of getting a leg up on each other, (which is disgusting when you think of it in terms of news orgies) rather than that tired concept of being correct.  No longer do they seem to critique the source of the news for any bias or prejudice. News agencies I think have a new news gathering motto; Gaze on It Momentarily, Post Immediately or GIMPI.

The point, and I do have one, is that news agencies have moved away from journalism in large part and toward mere reporting.  We the public are so bombarded with trivial little facts that it just becomes white noise, or more like the universal background radiation; always there, always on.  

I fear Ray Bradbury had it right in Fahrenheit 451, wherein he prognosticated that sound-bites will be the dominant mode for transmitting information.  Things like Twitter and Facebook updates are increasingly shrinking the amount of news.  140 characters sounds more like a Dickens novel than a news post!  I’m not immune to this process.  I do have a twitter account, but I try to impart some information or direct people to where they can read more information on a particular subject.

What I want going forward is more in depth discussion of issues that I deem important and that is where the internet can help.  But, like any double edged sword, the internet as a news source is wonderful, but at the same time very hard to perceive bias in authors.  (FYI; My bias, by the way, is me.  No need to guess).  Perhaps the Internet news providers are the one biggest reason TV news agencies are sensationalizing ho-hum news.  

Like the other day I wanted to hear the latest about the nuclear reactor in Japan, because not only did I live in Japan, but the situation could conceivably AFFECT HOW THE WORLD LOOKS AT NUCLEAR POWER or AFFECT FOOD IN JAPAN FOR DECADES!  But, I only heard a brief two sentence report on the reactors and then the radio station proceeded to discuss, in depth, a different pressing world epidemic that has dire consequences for the entire human race: North American Pets are more obese than ever before!  What… The… Hell??!?  I’m sure Weight-watchers will have a program for fat, sausage-like, puffs of cat called Pet-Peepers. The amount of money people spend on pets is…. Well, that’s a diatribe for a later post.

Radio and TV news agencies realize more and more people are going to alternative sources for their news diet.  And, like butchered potatoes deep fried in pig lard, smothered with chicken fat gravy, topped with a bovine salt lick, I view TV and radio news agencies as being increasingly bad for your health or junk food for the eyes and ears.  Garbage in garbage out.

Governments need to address News and how it is gathered and released.  In exchange for existing, TV stations were obliged by the government to report the news.  They no longer do that.  There are thousands of invisible strings that connect money, corporations, and politicians to TV and radio stations.  There really aren’t any independent TV or radio stations any more.  All TV and radio stations pay heed to the corporate parent.  That means if Poisonous Cookie Corp. owns Joke News Network and there’s a news story that 20,000 people died eating Poisonous Cookie Corp.’s newest cookie, The Esophageal Closer, you can bet your hairy ______ (put your favourite or least favourite body part here, I like to use elbow) that JNN will have nothing to say about it.  So Grandma, who usually only watches JNN because she thinks the lead anchor may or may not be gay as reported by another channel, doesn’t get that info and she hustles out to get her grand-kids the latest cookie… Well, we’ll see the kids choking, live on TV.  Ain’t technology grand?

Out.

"How TV Ruined Your Life" is a British series taking a critical (and comical) view of the very medium upon which it is transmitted.  Episode 4 or 5 I think was about this very topic.  The News.  In the show they analyze how and why it evolved from a graphical display of radio news (very literally, someone reads the news while a map of the location of the news event is displayed) to today's "the end of the world is upon us!  Obese pets kill the ozone".  You should watch it next time you're over.