Originally Posted By ecdc "You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war." I've spent too many long hours in archives pouring over newspapers from the 1900s and 1910s to labor under the delusion that the media was once some noble bastion of responsibility. In many ways, they're far more responsible now than they were in the past.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "But please don't pretend this is a new phenomenon, or even relatively new." Is anyone here doing that?
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder No, apparently I'm just not as smart as you. If you explain to me very slowly your post 79, everything mawnck has posted, a the initial posts from William in this thread that would be great.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 #14 is a bit ironic now, considering 2 of the 3 major cable news networks went with the erroneous "we have a suspect in custody!" thing without getting corroboration, while msnbc did not. Each age of journalism brings with it its own problems, and ours is no different. Our constant need for "Now, now, now!" is the current scourge, and the media and the public share in that.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "No, apparently I'm just not as smart as you." Apparently. Now who's being obtuse? "Each age of journalism brings with it its own problems, and ours is no different. Our constant need for "Now, now, now!" is the current scourge, and the media and the public share in that." Agreed.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>Each age of journalism brings with it its own problems, and ours is no different. Our constant need for "Now, now, now!" is the current scourge, and the media and the public share in that.<< This. This is ABSOLUTELY a new phenomenon. 20 years ago there were only two 24-hour news networks (CNN and Headline News, both run by the same outfit in a relatively competent and responsible manner), and no internet to speak of. There was not a cutthroat competition to be first, to the total detriment of being right. There was also less pressure to cut journalism budgets to the bone, and rely on outside sources (4chan for crying out loud!) for reporting. The quantity of news coverage is higher than ever before. The quality is near its all-time nadir. The Chicago Tribune will NEVER live down that "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline from 64 years ago. It was notorious because it was such a uniquely disastrous, premature call in an attempt to scoop the competition by a few hours. Yet here we are, with similar mistakes being made on an HOURLY basis for the same reason, and we're supposed to be OK with that? It's at the point now that I can confidently predict a total journalistic clusterboink - involving some of the "respected" players (as well as, inevitably, Fox News) in post 6, and it appears, like clockwork, the next day. And the next "big" news story is going to be the same thing. You watch. Don't tell me I'm supposed to be happy about this because there was yellow journalism at the turn of the last century.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>Our constant need for "Now, now, now!" is the current scourge, and the media and the public share in that.<< I guess that's my point. I'm always for a discussion on how to improve things. But this current environment isn't just the media trying to outdo each other for ratings. It's all part of a large shift towards controlling how and when we get information, what that information is, and how it intersects with our lives. It's an entire mindframe that encompasses many spheres of public and private life. The news media's just a small part of that.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>Yet here we are, with similar mistakes being made on an HOURLY basis for the same reason, and we're supposed to be OK with that?<< But that's just it, I don't think people are okay with it so much as they understand that the errors are very quickly corrected. Have you seen commentary lately? CNN is getting absolutely skewered by...well...everyone for what happened yesterday. It's out and then gone within minutes. It's not that people are okay with shoddy reporting at all. It's just a radically different environment where technology allows for on-demand reporting. Then inaccurate and yes, lazy, errors are corrected. I don't see why this is so problematic, since the errors are rarely perpetuated into the final story. When anyone reads about 9/11, do the accounts include an attack on the State Department? No, that was corrected.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>I don't see why this is so problematic, since the errors are rarely perpetuated into the final story.<< It's problematic because the "final story" ends up different for everyone, depending on when they happened to tune in to the news coverage.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>It's problematic because the "final story" ends up different for everyone, depending on when they happened to tune in to the news coverage.<< Maybe for a tiny minority. But I don't think there's a lot of people wandering around today thinking the bomber has been arrested and arraigned in federal court, as CNN claimed for 15 minutes yesterday. The irony is, you say this is a very different, very new environment from yellow journalism. Fair enough. But then you act as if the results are the same from 60 years ago when a headline was wrong. It's not; the record is quickly corrected.
Originally Posted By ecdc BTW, Pete Williams on NBC is doing excellent, responsible journalism. It's out there, and in major media outlets if people want it.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 Sorry don't have access to You Tube right now, but did anyone see the crowd at the Bruins game singing the Star Spangled Banner in unison? Just awesome and really gives you goosebumps
Originally Posted By TomSawyer When did we stop singing the national anthem as a group before sporting events?
Originally Posted By Dabob2 When we decided we couldn't follow the melisma that seems de rigueur these days.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 <<When did we stop singing the national anthem as a group before sporting events? >> People sing it but it's never that loud.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "When we decided we couldn't follow the melisma that seems de rigueur these days." LOL. So true. I had to give up watching TV talent shows for this very reason.
