*Why* is the American news media feeding us continuous BS ??

[Joshua_me]

I usually don't delve into topics like this...but, here goes:

As a society, we are in an amazing time in our history, both good and
horribly bad.

The good: We're entering, for the first time in our history, a phase in time when a female or African-American actually stands a fighting chance of becoming our next president. Also, N.J. just became the next state to 'OK'
'civil unions' for same sex couples. (Hey, it's a start)

The horrible: We are on the brink of a civil war in Iraq/Iran, the consequences of which may well prove unimaginable...Various outbreaks of e-coli and other diseases are popping up in our national/global food supplies, and oh yeah...there's that little ditty about global warming that could have our children and their kids underwater...

And yet, at 9pm tonight, surfing around all the American cable news feeds: CNN, MSNBC, FOX, et al., Only three stories seemed to garner the headlines:

1) Britney shaved her head.
2) We still don't know who the Father of Anna Nicole's baby is
3) Donald Trump's flagpole is 40 feet too high in Palm Beach.

Ya know, it would almost be comical if it wasn't so horribly sad and downright scary.

Why are Americans content to be in a constant state of pablum induced, dumbed down total indifference ?

Thoughts?

 

[dw8038r2]

One of the best things about living abroad was not having to hear all the crap that passes as news. I don't even know anything about the OJ case, and I like it that way. The media pander to the lowest common denominator of our society, and, sadly, there are enough of them to keep the Anna Nicole presses rolling.

 

[secondmonkey]

Ratings. The fact is, most people are stupid. Americans and every other kind of people. That's the kind of news stupid people want to see.

 

[JSB_01]

I agree. It may be sad that Anna Nicole Smith died, but people need to get over it! And I also think that's sports should receive less airtime.

 

[looseliam]

Because most people are sheep.

 

[modernaire]

It's cause American culture places value on the wrong things. We're taught to be intimidated by smart people and anything that isn't low-brow.

 

[Otherwise]

I think its a little deeper then that. Granted there are a lot of stupid people, but I think the bottom line is that most people just don't want to face reality. If given the choice between hearing something "scary" and life threatening like global warming or the war in Iraq and its consequences, a majority of people on their downtime would rather hear about some light and non-threatening like the search for Anna Nicole's baby daddy. That's human nature. Avoidance. So it falls on the journalists to tell us the things that we don't want to hear, but need to, and that's not happening. I'm personally more worried about our journalists not informing us of serious events then the American appetite for low brow entertainment.

 

[NW007]

Look no further than JUB threads. How many Britney Spears threads are there on this site. I didn't what to bother checking how many Anna Nicile Smith threads there might be.

Unfortunately this type of junk sells along with "negative" news. Very little time spent talking about what is going right with things is discussed .

 

[FlyingCheeseSteak]

Cable "news" channels need cheap news to put on the air because these channels do not bring in much money. ABC News, for example, and others like this on the networks cost the network about $4oo million a year (I read somewhere) and they don't make the money back. Cable channels do not make that kind of money. They cannot afford to do proper research (a staff of journalists and researchers costs alot of money) so they fall back on bullshit such as Anna Nicole, and the usual kidnappings.

 

[Joshua_me]

Ratings. The fact is, most people are stupid. Americans and every other kind of people. That's the kind of news stupid people want to see.

Well...*that* is more than a little depressing.

I'm not sure that most people are 'stupid'. I think it's a 'chicken or the egg' thing. Are people stupid because of the dumb downed media, or is the media dumbed down because of the stupid people ?

It seems to me like most American news media exists in a vacuum of sorts.
I talk to a LOT of people during my day, and most seem to agree that most news reports are utter crap.

I'm not sure why this is... One look at a half hour of BBC news really highlight how *awful* our newscasting has become.

<This just in> K-fed is gassy ! News and video at 6.

 

[gaz1978]

I

1) Britney shaved her head.
2) We still don't know who the Father of Anna Nicole's baby is
3) Donald Trump's flagpole is 40 feet too high in Palm Beach.

Its not just you Americans who suffer this shit. We had 1 and 2 as major news stories [front page headlines, "breaking news", etc] for days here too!!

 

[shinero]

It's Commercialization of News....once upon a time the News department did not have the burden of making a profit the same way Network shows did....But now they have to try to post a profit so they go with what will sell. It's funny because last week when CNN ran the Anna N Smith story they received some of their biggest ratings of the year.

Is it the media feeding the public or is it the public showing the media what they want to see?

 

[Tongue_Me]

It's like that in the UK too, in fact I would say it's worse because the MAJORITY of people couldn't give a fuck if Anna nicole was swallowed whole by Britneys newley shaved crotch. Yet we're bombarded with insignificant celebrities on the evening news rather than actual news that means something to somebody.

 

[Spiff]

The 3 biggest problems with the Amercan news media:

1. Nancy Grace
2. Rita Crosby
3. Joe Scarborough