Anybody else annoyed by how ill informed the reporters are about

[saracat]

the customs of the Vatican? I can understand the average person not knowing certain things but shouldn't a journalist doe some due diligence if they are going to cover a major event? They are continually complaining that they don't know things because it has been twenty six years since a Pope has does! Well, look it up dammit! It is their job to be informed and to inform us. They are appealing to the listeners. Dumb girl on CNN was wondering about bells.She was told they mark the time. Duh!

[KitchenWitch]

1. A few hours of research would take care of that whole fiasco

Proves that our MSM is entirely about entertainment and not about hard news at all.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. I'm annoyed at how ill informed they are about EVERYTHING. nt

[saracat]

5. true enough!

[Panda1]

8. That sums it up.

There are very few real journalists left and they get no air time.
We have talking heads who know nothing other than the latest Rover blastfax. Infotainment. They don't have to think to do that.

[northamericancitizen]

9. Fascinating sig.

[Panda1]

12. Why, thanks.

It's indicative of my Liberal Blue NeoDem Progessive view that we must take back our party from the DINOs. We're in the majority and we have to let them know we're out here....and we're pissed off.
There's hope with Dean at the helm IMO. And boycotting red companies is all they understand. Money...bottom line. Hit the corporations where it hurts the most.

[MollyStark]

3. I am annoyed at the general level of ignorance in America

"Journalists" seem to be as dumb as everyone else, which is inexcusable.

[Stand and Fight]

4. Actually...

Some of those questions are scripted so that people know to tune in to have their own similar questions answered. They do a similar thing in drama -- you see it a lot in movies. You know, like when a character asks a question that you think is obvious? It is actually for those in the audience who may not be as informed, etc... They do things like that so that people know what they are talking about more quickly. It's is not just because they're uninformed -- a lot of it is because they know most people -- admittedly no thanks to them -- are very uninformed.

[cap]

11. actually there are consultants

who help "write" the news so that it is entertaining. There was a piece on this a while back in the MSM...

it's deliberate...

[Clark2008]

6. Yeah - they keep repeating that the cardinal with thump the Pope

on the head three times with a hammer to make sure he'd dead.

Geez - THIS pope got rid of that custom years ago.

[MADem]

7. Wolf Blitzer had me rolling on the floor with his incompetence

"LET's LISTEN IN!!!" he says, as they are showing a mass in Italian at the big church across Rome. It's the STANDARD MASS, all ya have to do is grab the book, the translation is the SAME, and we're listening to some poor British (apparently not Catholic) gal painstakingly translating the friken mass word by word, which makes it sound totally wack-o--after a minute or two, he went back to his guest, who helpfully let him know that it's just the standard mass, nothing special.

I know more about all religions of the world that that idiot knew, and I'll bet the dunce was raised Catholic. Pathetic beyond belief!

Those guys are floating lazily in the mainstream, not doing any swimming. Losers!

[JDPriestly]

10. The "news media" is worthless.

For the most part, they do no research. (Occasionally the big newspapers do a special report that is good.) For the most part, their "reporting" consists of just copying the AP, Reuters and Bloomberg releases. Sometimes they hardly bother to reword them. The news game has become a competition to produce a maximum number of sensational, attention-getting stories for each newspaper or broadcast. They don't bother with in depth reporting. It's all writing -- actually blather, no background work.

Actually, if you combine all the blogs and use a little discernment, you get a better picture, especially if you supplement it with reading the better magazines like Mother Jones, the Nation, Atlantic Monthly, the New Yorker and many, many other magazines. Bloggers and magazines work harder on research and originality. Bloggers and magazines are under no pressure to report on every story of interest to the readers. The worst "reporters" are on TV, seconded only by the so-called news magazines.