The ghouls are searching for bodies at CNN
There was a shooting today in Houston. There are often shootings in Houston, but this one involved a fairly high rent area of town (read rich and white,) so, of course, it garnered attention. CNN kept "cutting in" to local Houston coverage.
The only problem is that there really was no local Houston coverage. Down here in Houston, all the channels, even the "local affiliate" that CNN claimed to be "cutting in" on, were showing midday soap operas. CNN completely hyped it up.
(CNN wasn't cutting to Houston coverage, they were cutting to a feed from a helicopter.)
I think this says alot about the "national local news station" that comprises about a third of CNN's coverage. (I don't know if MSNBC or FoxNews featured this story.)
It also says alot the cable network values. Since the Virginia Tech story and it's vast national attention (read ratings,) they keep searching for another similar tragedy. In the last week, they were also "live" on the NASA workplace shooting down here as well.
It's really very ghoulish.
(And, I'm sure that somewhere in this nation there was a multiple homicide that didn't involve upper middle class whites, but watching CNN, how would I know?)
The only problem is that there really was no local Houston coverage. Down here in Houston, all the channels, even the "local affiliate" that CNN claimed to be "cutting in" on, were showing midday soap operas. CNN completely hyped it up.
(CNN wasn't cutting to Houston coverage, they were cutting to a feed from a helicopter.)
I think this says alot about the "national local news station" that comprises about a third of CNN's coverage. (I don't know if MSNBC or FoxNews featured this story.)
It also says alot the cable network values. Since the Virginia Tech story and it's vast national attention (read ratings,) they keep searching for another similar tragedy. In the last week, they were also "live" on the NASA workplace shooting down here as well.
It's really very ghoulish.
(And, I'm sure that somewhere in this nation there was a multiple homicide that didn't involve upper middle class whites, but watching CNN, how would I know?)
posted by mikevotes at
7:03 PM
4 Comments:
Journalists cliche' "If it bleeds it leads"
By
matt, at 9:14 PM
Definitely, but it's this bizarre effort to hype what should be local news stories into national news stories that is so awful.
I mean, really, what does this local Houston shooting have to do with anyone outside Houston?
Does it impact them in some way?
It's sensationalism at its worst.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 9:45 PM
Here's some more sensationalism for you, Mike.
If I said the names Tionda and Diamond Bradley, I bet no one outside of the Chicago area would know what I was referring to (and I'm sure many in Chicago don't even know).
If I said Elizabeth Smart, I could probably get someone who has never met her to relay her entire life story to me.
While the Smart case ended happily, the Bradley sisters have never been found. Both had the same beginnings (Tionda and Diamond also disappeared from their home) yet the Smart case became a national sensation—even before she was found alive.
In this instance, it could be said that one life is more important than two in the eyes of the national media—especially if that one life belongs to a pretty blonde girl from an affluent background.
By
Anonymous, at 12:27 PM
Exactly.
There is no other real difference between the cases they cover and the ones they don't.
By
mikevotes, at 1:46 PM
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