Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The injustice of American Media sensationalism

To paraphrase quote one of my favorite movies The Big Chill; “Never write anything longer than what the average person can read during the average crap.”

Today, we have more ways to find (mis)information on the news, whether it be Political, Celebrity, Sports, etc. Some of the trades are straight and some stretch the term “Yellow Journalism” to the edge.

Yellow journalism has come a long way since the Spanish American War and the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine off the coast of Cuba. If it weren’t for biased opinion sprinkled with a little bit of fact, the U.S. would’ve never declared war and Teddy Roosevelt may not have become an American Icon that would later become President.

There is no doubt that today’s media has become more “Yellow” then ever before. Americans would rather take the words of a partisan talker in the likes of Hannity or Shultz then actually read or listen to other outlets.
After all, your local news will only give you enough dissected saturated info they can fit into a 45 second spot then actually exists. Newspapers and trade magazines are a dying breed because about 90% of the public is too busy too want to sit and read the story. We would rather have someone read us the story than actually read it ourselves.

Media personalities have become the Dr. Seuss and Mother Goose of the news, a bedtime story nation. Making villains of those with opposite beliefs and making heroes of those they believe fight the good cause.
Yet, years later, those villains are then hired by the Media outlets and those heroes fall off their trusty steeds and onto their swords.

Case in point, the 90’s when those that attempted to impeach Pres Clinton for lying about a sexual affair he had with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The Social Moral driven conservatives in the Republican Party went after Pres. Clinton and many were considered heroes amongst their constituents. Shortly thereafter, many fell to their own hidden closet of affairs.

Then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was having an affair with his 3rd mistress in his chambers during the Impeachment hearings. Years later, Newt would state his infidelity had to do with his passion and overworked Congressional schedule.

Democrats are not angels either. In 2008 New York Governor Eliot Spitzer ran rampant thru NY going after prostitution rings only to be found to be a “John” himself and resigning in disgrace.

Today, Eliot Spitzer has a cushy commentating job with CNN and Newt Ginginch is running for President of the United States.
We’ve become such a misinformed nation, or should I say misinformed partisan news nation.

Over the past 2 decades we’ve been told how much the Democrats are anti-military and want to do away with defense funding, yet in 2010 the “Tea Party” members of Congress (those that ran under GOP funding) want twice as much defense spending cuts then the Democrats, but you’ll never hear that on those Con-Opinionating talk shows.

But it’s not even politics that we are misinformed upon. Take the Casey Anthony trials that have been plastered on every Media outlet the past 2 months. Media has sensationalized this trial, why?

A good friend of mine made the best comment when I asked if the trial was just that, Media sensationalism. To paraphrase him “if it were some 40 year old, 500lb woman, Media would only mention the trial in passing, but since she is a hot 20 something year old, the Media grabbed hold and rammed the story into our everyday lives .”

It’s a great point; Media has blown other stories to focus on Casey Anthony. I would say 97% of America said she was guilty and when heard the words “Not guilty” everyone freaked. We look past the notion that the Prosecution was horrible and for every move they made the Defense was 2 steps ahead.

Go back to the O.J. Simpson murder trials, as the Prosecution once again was pathetic in their job. It didn’t hurt that then Officer Mark Furman completely screwed the Prosecution over by tainting evidence. And what ever happened to Officer Furman, well he is now a successful novelist whom is a regular on the Sean Hannity radio show as a Police Investigation Expert.

Many have heard of the battle between Glenn Beck and Van Jones.

Van Jones signed a “9/11 Truth” petition shortly after 9/11 happened, and when he joined Pres. Obama’s council, Glenn Beck attacked Van Jones for his signature amongst Jones’ other misgivings.

Yet, Beck and others ignore someone like Alex Jones, who is one of the US’s biggest conspiracy theorists, and his own “9/11 Truth” movement. Alex Jones believes it too was an inside job, in line with the Michael Moore, yet Beck and others only attack Moore. Why? Simple, never “eat your own.”

9/11 is sacred, never speak ill of the day and many were reminded of such when the US Navy Seals finally brought judgment to Osama bin Laden a few months back.

Many Americans celebrated (I was one) the death of OBL but there were others who believed that he should have been captured and brought to trial and could not understand the celebration of one person’s death.

It’s easy to understand and I am sure those that are the most hardened of Bible readers gave a sigh of relief knowing OBL was gone. Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendanhall however became a goat by many when expressing his opinion on Social Media’s Twitter.

Mendenhall, he of religious belief, had a hard time understanding the jubilation of the death of OBL, but that was not the comment Media focused on. It was his open thought of the “9/11 Truth” notion that (paraphrase) “how can an airliner bring down such a large building in the World Trade Center?” It was that thought for which he was castrated in the Media, by both Left and Right.

We are so full of opinion, actually, full of our own opinion that it is next to impossible to listen and understand the opinion of others. And for those that can’t fathom their own opinion, they take those words of their favorite Media source, from Beck to Shultz to Limbaugh to Olbermann and take it as Gospel truth and regurgitate it as if it were their own.

We don’t have factual journalists anymore, just people pretending to be knowledgeable of the events and just waiting for their moment to be able to call the current or future President “a dick” on live television.

Now was that fact or just an opinion?

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