29 April 2008

MSM: So Bad it's Beyond Satirizable

Three examples to demonstrate the absence of even a hint of perspicuity in the mainstream media's news reporting:

1) The Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Nobody cared about him before he mouthed off and nobody cares about him now. The story here is not what impact he has on the election; the story is that the MSM hasn't a clue about what to report and how to report it. All it can do is leech onto sensationalism and desperately and incessantly manufacture the visage of relevance. At first it was annoying, then frustrating, and now it is just plain pathetic, like a mid-life douchebag donning torn jeans and riding a Harley, hoping that people will take him seriously for what he is not. I shake my head and laugh at the Sunday morning roundtables of political punditry, so out of touch that they actually think their confabulatory cacophony lends legitimacy to non-issues.


2) Mortgage crisis. This is a perfect example of "unreporting." Unlike the Rev. Wright story, which doesn't matter, this one matters but is simply not reported in a substantive manner. We hear about families that can barley afford their payments or have lost their homes. We see their kids at the table. We see statistics about how many foreclosures there were this quarter, given to us in big letters and big arrows. The media offers us emotion and numbers.

But it doesn't offer answers. No interviews with the executives or boards of financial institutions. No questions to elected officials about their role. No news stories about bad business or bad government. What could have prevented it? What will prevent another crisis? Are terms like "more regulation" and "increased transparency" still faux pas in polite conversation among the gentlemen of streets Wall and K?


3) Miley Cyrus. As the difference between the MSM and "The View" diminishes daily we get stories like this, the topic du jour: How to talk to your kids about Miley Cyrus' racy photo. Maybe the parents can use the same talk they got about that Farrah Fawcett poster, or nothing coming between Brooke Shields and her Calvins, or Demi Moore's big naked pregnant belly on Rolling Stone, or Britney's beaver on every cell phone at school.

What's next? News stories about kids and their crazy music?

4 comments:

Wes said...

As I said over at my place, the whole Miley Cyrus thing is now officially out of hand. No matter what Channel 5 thinks, this is not a local story.

WF

WestEnder said...

Hell, it's not even a story, period.

5chw4r7z said...

They never tell you about the outright fraud of the mortgage crisis either. The borrower and lender both know making $3,000 a month they can't pay $2,700 a month loans but they both signed the agreement. What else can you call this crisis but out right fraud? People should be going to jail, and I'm not just talking about lenders.
What could have prevented it? The banks actually checking peoples credit instead of giving them the wink, wink at their word.

WestEnder said...

Exactly... it's unbelievable that so many financial institutions could have such shoddy business practices and not get taken to the woodshed.

And a taxpayer bailout is just insult to injury.

Nobody has an easier time getting welfare than a guy in a $3000 suit.