The harm it must do - the endless TV 24 hour MSM news cycle during disasters....

[NRaleighLiberal]

As I related the other day, when the Boston Marathon bombing happened, I was doing other things and found out when my wife (who heard about it on NPR) called me. So I turned on the TV (CBS, Scott Pelley) and saw the horror - and within 10 minutes a few things were clear: the fog of disaster already took hold, there was little concrete information, there were a few videos that they looped, and the wash/rinse/repeat cycle had a very short amplitude.

So I watched for 10 minutes more, and must have seen the loop of the explosion - the one where it showed the poor older runner crumpling like so many pins on a bowling alley - dozens of times. The loop would repeat...and repeat...and repeat. So I turned the TV off.

Later that night, for the nightly national news, we turned it on again - and it was pretty much the same stuff - in fact local news never came on - it was Pelley version 15.1, showing the same loop.

And over the past few days I've pondered what constant repetition does - because you and I know that there are people all over the country that have that damn TV on 24/7, and saw the looping over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over......

and over........


..............................and over and over again. Reminded me of 911 (during which time my wife and I were visiting our daughter in Ireland, so couldn't watch Sky news endless looping and looping and looping).

So our natural tendencies to want to watch, to thirst for updates and news, get confronted with the psychological impact of seeing or hearing something endlessly repeated.

What does it do to us? Inflame? Desensitize? Awaken primal urges to find and kill? To profile - jump to conclusions - theorize?

Of course, all of this - but for the most part, it can't be good. It can't be good for objectivity, thoughtful consideration, time to absorb, time to gather real facts.

And in a nutshell, that's what I find really dangerous and awful about the damned 24 hour news cycle.

And that's the first thing that jumped into my mind this morning as I sip the morning coffee, sitting in my front room, listening to the birds, chatting with my wife. With no TV on.

Peace, everyone - have a great day.




ps....the 24 hour MSM news cycle is no less damaging when it is NOT in disaster mode. Then it can just spin whatever propaganda that the corporate owners wish to serve up....less pictures, though, to mesmerize us with.

[cali]

1. This is an excellent post!

It becomes a black hole.

Thanks for posting this. Best thing I've read on DU in a while.

[sikofit3]

10. Agreed!

I have often thought about this myself and you said it perfectly. There has to be a damaging affect and I for one can't watch it for more than 2 minutes just to get the gist of what is going on.

[Fumesucker]

2. It doesn't even have to be a tragic event for the mind numbing repetition to take hold

Remember the "Dean Scream"?

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. Yes - I just added a PS to my post while you must have done this response. indeed!

[HDavis]

4. The harm it must do........

I agree with this article--great insight!

[sorefeet]

5. Brainwashing fear mongering

Out of all the people present at the explosion at the fertilizer factory, why is one guy on the news saying "IT'S JUST LIKE IRAQ AND THE OKLAHOMA BOMBING." To perpetuate FEAR and control. Our news is just as much propaganda as North Korea news. You only hear what they want you to hear.

[Le Taz Hot]

6. Having watched the same 24/hour no-information

nonsense with other disasters, it's amazing the different experience one has without a TV service. It's like you get a built-in filter. I access DU and a few other online sources but what I'm receiving filters out the 98% bullshit that is 24-hour news. It's not 24-hour news it's 24-hour blathering. Anyway, something to consider. Turn off your TV. When something happens it will be in print somewhere on the intertubes just as quickly as it will be on TV.

On edit: I know that wasn't your main point (I should have finished this post) but 24-hour cable news services are there to MAKE MONEY. Yes, they have to fill-in with looped stories/pictures/videos which DOES have significant influence. The only way we can affect change is to turn off the TV. It's better for your blood pressure, you're more informed,you've wasted far less time and you've told the 24-hour cable news what you think of their programming.

OK, I think I'm done this time.

[NRaleighLiberal]

7. + too many to enumerate!

[Fumesucker]

11. People who don't watch TV are arrogant elitists

I've read it right here on DU.

[Le Taz Hot]

15. Damn!

Did I just move up in social status?

[KharmaTrain]

8. The Worse Damage Is What They're Doing To Themselves...

...the credibility of certain networks (coughCNNcough) are suffering big hits by their terrible coverage of the Boston bombing. This demonstrates the results of constant downsizing that has driven real journalists from the "mainstream" news media and its been replaced with personalities. Yesterday's embarrassment for Chicken Noodle Nuze is a prime example...John King and Wolfie were more concerned with their "exclusive" and "being first" than being right. I suspect they were set up to look the fools they are...more concerned with their ratings and "relevance" than actually covering the story.

To their credit, MSNBC and NBC held their powder when others were ready to convict...faux took their cues from CNN (too lazy to do real news, but then they never really did). Pete Williams has done a stellar job in getting what little information is out there and putting it in a proper context.

By crying wolf...be it predicting election results that didn't happen or arrests and suspects that didn't exist, the credibility, especially of CNN, have taken a major hit. This was once the "go-to" network in a time of crisis and they've destroyed that credibility with their handling of this tragedy. My only hopes is that its corporate management finally wakes up to how far this network has fallen and make some very fundamental changes...but I'm not holding my breath and could care less.

[southernyankeebelle]

9. Sometimes it's so overwhelming I have to turn it off. I would think it's kind of like

being in a constant war zone mentality. It works on a person. Sad, very very sad.

[ellenrr]

12. Agree. Too bad Democracy isn't heard/seen by more

This morning great show included-
re Texas explosion - discussionof Rick Perry and his unregulated states, and OSHA, and why non-union shops have more accidents that union.

re Boston - on the media reporting a "dark-skinned male" and reminding us of all the right-wing bomb blasts, which are so quickly forgotten.

[justiceischeap]

13. That's why I check DU throughout the day, so those that are watching the repetition can inform me nt

[Javaman]

14. get the 10 minute headlines, then turn off the tv.

do that again 12 hours later.

MSM regurgitate the same 10 minutes of information in various different ways to appear as "breaking news" or "recent developments" to keep eyeballs on their station.

in the end it's only 10 minutes of news and 23 hours and 50 minutes of mostly bullshit