 damn the media some more (Rachel Lucas)
This is nothing new. I know that. The media has always been breathlessly devoted to what sells, not what's important.
So here's what's bugging me now. I was just in my living room, eating lunch and watching the news. When I first sat down, Fox News Channel had the "breaking news" about the Najaf car bombing that's killed at least 75 people and injured perhaps 150. MORE......
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I certainly feel Rachel's anger at the brain dead media in this country. Thats why I stay as far away as I can from TV news (doctors orders). I don't agree with her about the importance of the car bombing in Iraq. I just don't feel what those people do to each other is very important in my life or any one else's life except of course for the families of the victims.
My question about things that take up so much of the medias time is - who decides what is important? In a country this size on the same day that Laci disappeared there were a hundred or more other disappearances nationwide. Do you know who any of them are? I don't think I have ever heard any of those other disappearances even mentioned in the national media. If it was a local disappearance you heard about it on the local news but thats as far as it went. So why have we heard so much about this one case and will for many months to come?
I have a theory about why things like Laci's case seem to become more important then they should. I believe there are trigger spots around the country for the stories we hear and the ones that stick. You have New York and Washington, D.C. of course but there are others. The job for certain members of the national media is to make sure there is enough work for everyone in their industry. When things are slow in New York and Washington they watch for other events around the country that might provide some fodder to keep everyone busy. I believe that other major metro areas are looked at first to see if anything is happening to justify sending people off in that direction. LA is high on that list of course because of Hollywood. Yeah - we certainly must keep a close eye on Hollywood just in case a couple of has been bad singing female pop stars decide to tongue each other on MTV!
The day Laci disappeared was a real slow news day. The SF Bay media picked up the Laci story first because of the closeness of Modesto and the husband saying he had gone fishing in the bay that day. Bingo! Nothing else happening around the nation so all the watchers seize on it because the biggies in the bay area at least had a human interest story. Now the feeding frenzy starts. Within hours the street in front of Laci's home in little Modesto, California is filled with dozens of those big satellite trucks. How many people outside of Central California even know where Modesto is? How many care? Doesn't matter because the powers that be in the networks have decreed that this is the story we will be interested in whether we like it or not. Not the little boy or girl that disappeared that same day in Texas or Ohio but Laci Peterson in little Modesto, California because they need a fill for the evening news and the bay area media people got there first. The hundred others who disappeared that day don't matter. They found the big one for the day and will milk it as long as they can.
It makes me sick just as it does Rachel. Not for all the same reasons but in my case because I see how the things that this country thinks are important are decided by so few people working in the networks. They have the power to change the way half the nation thinks on any given subject overnight just by what they decide to show and talk about in the evening news.
I'm happy that in the last few years a lot of people in this country seem to be a little more aware of how the way we think is being manipulated by so few people. Unfortunately they are not yet alarmed enough to stop allowing themselves to be manipulated or strong minded enough to resist, but the rant about the dumbing down of America is for another time. (LP)
11:42:37 PM 
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