What do you think of news coverage of events like the Virginia Tech massacre?
Does anyone notice that the networks and the local stations manage to fill up air time with “coverage” when they really don’t have any information to report, and then say “More details as they become available” when they haven’t reported any details yet? They should just report what they do know, then move on, IMHO.
We had a shooting of a city official here, and the local radio station bragged about having reporters “on the scene” everywhere, at the hospital, city hall, police headquarters, the vicitim’s home, man-on-the-street interviews, etc., but never once in 20 minutes mentioned the condition of the victim or identified the shooter. Talk about a smoke screen!
On the one hand, in our instant communications age, maybe we expect too much. On the other, competing news outlets seem to be hell-bent on pretending that they’re delivering.
What do you think? What information should the news media have had as early as yesterday? What should they have been reporting?
Comments
4 Responses to “What do you think of news coverage of events like the Virginia Tech massacre?”
Are you reading my mind? It seems like they do this with any breaking news. I believe that is why they give out false information from time to time. They need to gather the facts, verify them and then report. I think their belief is, report whatever they can come up with, try to pull in a bigger audience by doing so, charge more for their commerical time and laugh all the way to the bank.
In news media, it’s all about the ratings. Why do you think all the networks have people there? All the evening news anchors are there, all the morning shows are there. It’s all about who can interview the most people involved, so called “exclusive” interviews and videos, etc.
News is not really the way things are anyway…..
It is fluff and fake and with a slanted agenda……
All they could talk about this morning also was what kind of gun did the killing, just because they want guns banned.
What about reporting how preventative systems can be in place like sirens on buildings to signal a shutdown (locking all doors). That would be simple enough..
I’ve seen very little real news coverage. I have seen conjecture, hysteria, the promotion of ‘shared victimization’ and soppy emotionalism. All in all, it’s been pretty sickening.
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