I have just seen the saddest thing the world has ever seen

[Mass_Liberal]

On cnn.com the main headline is "Jackson back in Las Vegas" the smaller secondary headline is 27 killed, hundreds wounded in Istanbul blasts" Who give A FLYING %^&$ where Michael Jackson is! People just died and big protests are going on in England. SHUTTUP ABOUT MICHAEL JACKSON AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!!

Rant finished as of 9:33 PM (ET)

[kayleybeth]

1. I saw that too

and had the exact same reaction.

[Dookus]

2. To be fair....

the bombings in Istanbul were covered HEAVILY live on CNN late last night/early this morning and was the lead story on the webpage for hours.

I watched CNN until about 4:00am and it was almost nonstop coverage of Istanbul.

There's little new to report on the subject, and other stories come along.

I know I'm pissing people off, but I get annoyed when everybody assumes that if CNN isn't covering something anti-bush, that the whole network is under the thrall of Karl Rove. I don't believe that.

I believe Jackson's arrest was news that a lot of people cared about. Did they go overboard? Sure. The media (throughout the world) go overboard on celebrity scandal stuff. It's the world we live in. People care about that shit, whether we like it or not.

I don't believe the Istanbul story was under-covered.

[edzontar]

4. OK Dook, but really....

JACKO is over-covered, and will be forever, I fear!

[Dookus]

8. I agree with that....

really, i do.

But the problem is NOT the networks - it's the audience.

20 years ago, networks gave up on News as a public obligation and turned it into a profit center. So now they have to fight for audiences, rather than fulfill a public duty.

And sadly enough, more people wanna see Michael Jackson get arrested than they want to see in depth stories about free trade conferences in Miami.

I truly, in my heart, believe that if a network could get more viewers showing FTAA than Michael Jackson, they would.

Personally, I'd like to see broadcast networks who use public airwaves be required to provide real news coverage again, as was the case when I was younger. But until then, I don't fault them.

If you ran a news network and your job depended on turning a profit, which story would you cover?

[liberalhistorian]

6. I believe you, but I do wonder

just how many people are really watching CNN in the middle of the night?

[NNN0LHI]

7. People care about what they are told to care about Dookus n/t

[Dookus]

9. I don't believe that.

I think it's nice to believe that, but I don't think it's true.

You can dig through US newspapers (or worlwide ones, for that matter) going back centuries, and you will a predominance of sensationalism and scandal. there seems to be an insatiable appetite among the public for such stories.

Anthropologists and sociologists can attest to the universal acceptance of gossip. It seems to be an evolved human trait. ALL societies engage in it.

Now... all that being said: I DO believe the networks and cable outlets should be held to a higher standard and should be obligated to spend more time covering issues of substance, even at the cost of some profit. But the system isn't set up that way right now, and I can't blame a news exec for going where the audience is.

[karlschneider]

12. I suppose I wouldn't exactly "blame them" because they are all just bean

counters these days. There is precious little real journalism these days, it's just a rat race (a rather apt metaphor, I'd say) for, as you say, ratings -> corporate profits.

I don't have a lot of quarrel with whatever the print media does (which is not much very well), but the electromagnetic spectrum is finite and has historically been considered under joint ownership of all the people (in this country, at least), but it is no more. Sadly.

[Dookus]

16. yes...

this is where we agree.

News should NOT motivated by profit concerns. It worked that way from the beginning of the electromagnetic spectrum allocation until the mid '80's.

The airwaves BELONG TO US. We need to reclaim that. THAT is the big issue. Whether CNN or Fox or anybody else covers Michael Jackson is NOT the issue. The decisions are being made by people responsible for a bottom line. We need to empower real journalists again and force those who use the public airwaves to have a real responsibility for covering the news again.

Walter Cronkite has written a fair amount about it recently. Wesley Clark has discussed it, too.

I want to address THAT issue, rather than just blaming the cable networks for being sensationalistic. I honestly don't blame them for it - they're playing within the system that exists.

Sensationalistic coverage is a symptom of the real problem, not the problem itself.

[edzontar]

3. The people who run our news are pigs and whores....

They don't care about those people in Istanbul--bunch of dead furriners and all---no, it's WACKO JACKO time again!!!!

Their licenses should be revoked, and none of them should ever be allowed near a camera or a TV studio again.

[SheLiberal]

5. Are Americans really that stupid

I am so sick of Michael Jackson, the Lacy Peterson case and all the other distractions in the media. I can't watch CNN the have the same line up as the E network. I can get the real news here.

[alcuno]

10. Welcome to DU, SheLiberal

I have no idea who is watching all this garbage. I'll admit that I watched OJ, but that was a pretty interesting case. This other stuff is just freakish.

[dbt]

11. Ding! Ding! Ding!

SheLiberal (Welcome to DU!!!) nails it shut with this phrase: "I can get the real news here."

I am here to tell you that TV news is fucked beyond repair. I have been watching it from the inside for nearly 30 years. It's gone and it will not be back anytime soon.

Fugeddaboud the TV "news." Turn that crap off in favor of whatever entertainment shows you like and come to DU for the real news!

It's that simple.

:bounce:
dbt

[newyawker99]

22. Hi SheLiberal!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[brook]

13. What's the matter?

You - or at least, I am - living in a country that says that if someone is too nuts to stand trial, it ought to be okay to drug them back to sanity long enough to kill them.

Arnold the Android was elected Gov of Callifornia and the neocons are busy trying to chnge the Constitution so he can run for (another bad) Precedent. A corrupt - and not as stupid as you think - moran is sitting in the WH - with an awful lot of minor morans cheering him on. Henry Kissinger walks freely - though he always has to check before he goes to another country to see if they just might be willing to arrest him for his war crimes. Up is Down and nothing is as it seems.

And you're expecting to hear relevant news? Not until we get the keys back from the inmates.

[welshTerrier2]

14. Capitalism - News - Capitalism - News - Capitalism - News

one's purpose is to make money ...

the other's is to make informed citizens ...

see the difference ???

i wonder what Michael Jackson had for breakfast today and what he'll be wearing to the hearing ...

god, i can't wait to tune in to the Today show tomorrow morning ...
i'm sure Katy will tell me everything i need to know and more ...

god, it would be so cool if MJ did that moonwalk thing when he enters the courtroom ... god, i just can't wait ... what an age we live in !!!

you gotta love the american press ... they're the real heroes of our democracy ...

[Sting]

15. I'm sick of hearing about all of Hollywood.

:mad:

[opihimoimoi]

17. Numbers NUMBERS, its what sells gang. The media prints what they think

will sell, which is what they think the Public WANTS to HEAR.

One of the pitfalls of the CAPITALIST SYSTEM.

Forget Sanity, Reality, and Common Sense/Reason.

Bring on "Bring em on"

Its what sells.

[bleedingheart]

18. That is what is wrong with America today

[madddog]

19. bingo....

and, given that Jacko's celebrity status is light years past O.J.'s, does anyone here think we're NOT gonna get a steady diet of this for the next year or so? I wonder who the next Greta Van Susteren will be. Are Johnny Cochrane and Al Sharpton at Michael's side yet?

Please...just give me that lobotomy NOW thank you!

[Faygo Kid]

20. Thank you.

Couldn't agree more. I fear Bush/Rove in 2004, precisely because of what you point out here (that, and Diebold),

[hatrack]

21. If you haven't gotten rid of your TV already . . .

I sure as hell can't think of a better excuse than the upcoming likely 12-18 months of "Jacko-Rama".

I last owned a television in 1996, and life IS better this way - try it!

[Ellen Forradalom]

23. Or just watch BBC News

Surf right through CNN/Fox/Headline News. Take what you need (in my case, nature documentaries, the Daily Show and Charlie Rose) and leave the rest.

[rasputin1952]

24. Almost everyone I know changes channels...

when Petersen, Bryant of Jackson reports come on. It has to be registering in the Cable Co's data base. Problem is, most of the people I know have IQ's over 120. It is those that posess IQ's in the 80's that watch this crap 24/7. Too bad, that the while the world goes to hell in a handbasket, it is the moron citizen that dictates what is newsworthy.

I can see a crawl in the future, while Jackson is being arraigned, "Nuclear exchange in Iraq, details asfter Jackson arraignment, apparently 300,000+ incinerated in a milisecond".

It is sad to say the least, and criminal at best.

O8)

[ElsewheresDaughter]

25. Weapon of Mass Distraction.!!!...michael jackson...a bushco decoy

and many here at DU have been snoockered in by the rove machine

[FlyByNight]

26. It was only a matter of time...

before the mainstream media would latch on to something vapid and meaningless. There's only about a billion more important things to worry about and report on, but hey, why not yet another report on the walking sideshow himself? We are doomed.