Can you believe that TV One had an hour long special on Michael Jackson’s funeral and then ten minutes in the news?
Excuse my language but what the fuck is wrong with our media?
A mate emailed me after he saw the TVNZ presser (yes, they put one out) announcing the one-hour special saying, ‘I just don’t understand. Have I got people all wrong? Is this what really matters to them? I can’t believe so but if it’s true am I wrong about society and, therefore, are my political ideals wrong?’
I don’t think so. It’s not the people’s fault. It’s the media who systematically distort people’s perceptions of what’s important by focusing on the three cheapest things to cover in the news and have shows about – crime, entertainment, and sport. Feed people tripe enough and tripe starts to become delicious; the mention of tripe makes people hungry.
Unfortunately, even TVNZ7, which promised to be a real news channel, has already succumbed to the pulp infotainment crap. Another emailer writes:
I am a Sky subscriber but do not have Freeview. I was happy to read on Red Alert today that TVNZ7 was now available. I decided to tune in to the news at 8, I missed the regular edition. I was promised the inside story, in-depth interviews and analysis. The first news story was about Michael Jackson’s memorial service.
It went on for 16 Minutes.
I have E! Channel and MTV and C4 for this kind of trash/story. I do not think that someone tuning into TVNZ7 would be after that somehow.
A lot of people fret about the death of professional news reporting as the Internet eats the traditional media. I look the garbage like this that we are served by the mainstream media and I say don’t worry about the demise of journalism, it passed away long ago. What we’ve got now deserves to die.
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