Journalism Evolution 102
Published by Al Adomite on August 30th, 2008
More on this topic of changing media. This time: the negatives.
One thing I remember strongly from journalism school was covering ALL sides of the story, not BOTH sides of the story. This is where I think modern TV journalism is failing, especially political and investigative reporting.
Typical political reporting has evolved into a equal display of each side’s talking points. For example: Obama chooses Joe Biden as Veep nominee. First up: James Carville to call the move brilliant. Next up: Ann Coulter to tear the pick down. How much of my time have they just wasted telling me exactly what I expected to hear. Which would be OK if it wasn’t a 24-hour NEWS network.
And, not to go back to the convention coverage (again!), but can you tell the difference between Terry Bradshaw & Howie Long (NFL Sunday) and Wolf Blitzer & Tucker Carlson? I guess it’s great that politics is now entertaining to the general populace, but at what expense?
I had to laugh Wednesday evening as we turned off the Presidential Pageant to watch a rerun of the 100th episode of SouthPark.
When Mr. Garrison agrees to let anyone protesting the war out of school early for a rally, all the kids leave, even though they know little about the war. They are then interviewed outside the school for their views on what the Founding Fathers would think about the conflict and show their ignorance by not knowing who the founding fathers were. Angered at the embarrassment, Mr. Garrison gives everybody an assignment to figure out an opinion on the Founders’ view of the war.
Cartman gets electrocuted and thinks he’s with the Founding Fathers while the town brawls over the war.
Benjamin Franklin shows up, as voiced by famed TV producer Norman Lear, also creative consultant for this episode. Franklin believes that the new country must not seem to be a war-monger to the rest of the world; at the same time it cannot seem to be weak either. Therefore it must go to war, but allow protests. The United States will go to war on one hand, and use protest to oppose the war on the other. He refers to the this as “saying one thing” and “doing another”. One member refers to this as “having our cake and eating it too”. Cartman wakes up and delivers his message to the town, who see the truth of that statement and then break out into song.
It’s a sad reality when you have to go to a cartoon to find a real assessment and critical review on the state of modern day politics. Guess that’s why I prefer South Park and Colbert Report to CNN and MSNBC. At least somebody’s giving it to me straight.
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