Nuzak: What the mainstream media are giving us is elevator news

[IChing]

By John W. Baker, Memphis Flyer

Recently, I encountered the term "WPN" (for "what passes for news"). I'd like to propose a related term, "Nuzak." It's a functional description of how WPN fits into the life of the average Joe, who never reads a newspaper except for the sports section.

Nuzak is like Muzak. It runs in the background. It's a New York Times headline on the way out of the house. It's CNN at the airport. It's Fox News at home whileJoe is really doing something else. The purpose of Nuzak is to be mildly interesting and possibly entertaining without telling Joe anything that would disturb him personally. Real news has immediacy. It is "actionable intelligence," the last thing Joe is interested in. The average person basically wants to be left alone and to be told, town-crier fashion, that "All is well." Elevator news.

This does not mean that Nuzak can't be unpleasant, or that certain stories are off-limits because they are horrific, or gruesome, or disgusting. Nuzak can report all such things, but the important thing to Joe is that the events are someplace else, happening to someone else, thathe personally is okay, and that there's nothing for him to be disturbed about.

http://memphisflyer.com/content.asp?ArticleID=6&ID=7299

[lapfog_1]

1. dramatic car chase!

runaway bride!

celebrity on trial!

(please don't pay attention to a war or anything)

[ATM]

3. Attack The MEssenger

With all the controversy surrounding Newsweek’s retraction of it’s Koran flushing story, it’s interesting that there is a book by Congressional Quarterly columnist & MSNBC analyst Craig Crawford (you can read his column via a link on The Drudge Report) that addresses the issue of media credibility/fallibility called “Attack The Messenger”. National Journal’s Hotline has a free link to the book in its morning publication, “Wake Up Call” under “Hair of the Dog”:

http://nationaljournal.com/avantgo/wakeup.htm

http://www.attackthemessenger.com/index.html

[IrateCitizen]

2. David Barsamian coined the term "Nuzak" some time ago...

It's well-documented in Morris Berman's The Twilight of American Culture, page 2.

Now, I'm not upset that such an accurate description (I also like "infotainment") is getting in the MSM. I just wish sometimes that credit would be given to those OUTSIDE the mainstream who arrive at these prophetic conclusions long before anyone in the mainstream does.

[G2099]

4. Keith Olbermann Reports in Nuzak Style

While Olbermann is hailed as the prophet crying in the wilderness. I found his report on the "Memo" to be in the "style of Nuzak."

But since he is the only eye in the land of the blind, Olbermann gets a pass.

But if the "memo" story was reported by Fox on a democcrate the "memo" would have been hyped and spun like it was the Unified Field Theory or a revelation from God.