I recall what a big deal it was when CNN began broadcasting in the summer of 1980. Many critics said, “No way is this gonna work. You won’t have enough news to fill the programming 24/7.” Well, it turns out CNN didn’t fare too badly being the only big fish in a small pond. Headline news came along a few years later, and it wasn’t until more than 15 years later that Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC and other networks came on the scene.
For a while, I guess CNN was doing all right, but gradually, the more 24/7 networks there were on the air, the more watered down the content became.
My friends and I used to joke about turning on ESPN in the middle of the night and seeing refrigerator-throwing contests (it wasn’t quite that bad, but maybe tractor-pulling, lumberjack contests, billiards, curling, and cricket — definitely not the mainstream fare).
I suppose the cable news channels show reruns of documentaries and special reports in the middle of the night, or reruns of regularly scheduled programs such as "The O’Reilly Factor." I don’t know, because I’m rarely awake and watching TV at that hour.
But during the day, and in prime time, the cable news networks have a bad habit of trying to squeeze every last drop out of stories. Remember the wall-to-wall, 24/7 coverage of Natalee Holloway’s disappearance from Aruba when she was there on a high school graduation trip a few years ago? Then there was sensationalistic coverage on Caylee Anthony, a poor Florida toddler who ended up dead because of her stupid, party-animal mother; the eerie BTK serial killer Dennis Rader; Scott Peterson, who murdered his pregnant wife Laci; the monster Stephen Grant, who sliced and diced his wife, kept the torso in his garage, scattered body parts in a nearby park, and even slept with his children’s nanny while his dismembered wife lay in the garage. Am I missing any cases? Sure, but we don’t have room to discuss them all.
In each and every one of these cases, the networks trot out an endless parade of guest commentators, psychologists, forensic experts, psychics, cops, clergy, social workers, you name it. Ditto for political coverage, in which countless talking head pundits try to spin their views, which often are utter B.S., and pollsters galore break down the political landscape with what they think is an exact science, but which seems unduly influenced by the way questions are worded and the demographics of the respondents. (Besides, who ever said politicians — sometimes called “poll-a-ticians” should be ruled by Gallup? Most residents of the 13 American colonies opposed declaring independence from Great Britain. Good thing popular opinion didn’t rule, eh?)
What we end up with are blowhards, windbags, endless speculation, folks on opposite ends of an argument shouting each other down, the “Brady Bunch” squares I alluded to yesterday, and sometimes, like in the Michael Jackson case, graphic details we’d just as soon do without. Yesterday, for example, a CNN reporter went into gory specifics describing the condition of Michael Jackson’s body — track marks on his arms, his emaciated frame, white skin, and bald head. Enough already!
This is all in the guise of “news,” but it’s really more aptly described as “infotainment,” although lots of the “info” part we could do without, and the “tainment” part debases the viewer almost as much as the reporter.
If you want to make soup, but all you have is one carrot, one potato, a half an onion, and a partially gnawed chicken drumstick, you can add lots of water, chicken bullion, and maybe some olive oil. You will end up with a full pot of mostly broth and not much of substance. That seems to be the recipe for cable news in 2009.
I have had my cable completely disconnected and don't watch "free" tv. I can get what I need from the net.
Posted by: James Nelson | July 10, 2009 at 03:43 PM