The Media Keeps Missing the Point

Network news, news radio, and the papers want so badly to be taken seriously. Journalists get so offended at the very mention of the word "bias" and they think nobody can do their job but them. Remember last month how somebody in the White House press corps was so offended that Scott McClellan suggested it might be a good idea to have a positive story about the military after Newsweek's story about the Koran was used to start riots in Afghanistan?

MR. McCLELLAN: — because of this report. I think Newsweek is going to be in the best position to determine how to achieve that. And there are ways that I pointed out that they can help repair the damage. One way is to point out what the policies and practices of our United States military are. Our United States military personnel go out of their way to make sure that the Holy Koran is treated with care –

Q Are you asking them to write a story about how great the American military is; is that what you're saying here?

MR. McCLELLAN: Elisabeth, let me finish my sentence. Our military –

Q You've already said what you're — I know what — how it ends.

They took this issue about the Koran so seriously. It was their job to get to the bottom of this story. Blah, blah, blah. These are the same news organizations that saw it fit, last week, to interrupt breaking news about terrorists arrested in California to let us know that nothing was going on at the Michael Jackson trial. I almost threw the remote at the TV when that happened.

I was going to let all of this go, but I was working this morning while listening to KLIF and the most self aggrandizing promo I've ever heard aired during the commercials. Here, listen to this:

Not only is the promo dripping with melodrama, but it tells you they are most proud of their Michael Jackson coverage. To me, it's much more significant that Kofi Annan has been caught lying about his involvement in the Oil for Food scandal. It's certainly more important that there are terrorists being arrested within our own borders. So much time and energy was devoted to the Michael Jackson case when the reality was all that was reported for the week before the verdict was the jury was in deliberation and nothing was known. So much air time was wasted on pundits telling us he was going to be convicted and they were wrong the whole time.

I still can't believe they had the nerve to have a gospel choir singing "Not Guilty" in the background. What the hell?

Here's a good example of journalistic talent wasted: Greta Van Susteren was flown by Fox News out to California to sit around with a gazillion journalists blabbing about how much they don't know. Greta is a very talented legal analyst. A better use of her show would have been analyzing each of the President's judicial nominees. She could have devoted an entire show to each individual. She could have analyzed their rulings and provided viewers with a context to the sound bites that senators kept flinging at the cameras. It's disheartening to see this going on. It's like watching once-wild animals at a bad zoo with too-small cages. Talented analysts are misused, blow-hard pundits are overused, and real news is buried beneath sensationalism.

I'm not even going to go into the annoying back-patting the media did about Deep Throat. You'd think they saved the universe or something. It's sad that journalists try to aspire to something only two of them did thirty years ago.

If the media doesn't pay attention, somebody might just notice their irrelevance.

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