Published Mar. 3, 2008 in "The Oklahoma Daily"
Viewable Online Here
Cable TV has not been universally beneficial for society. True, one can watch National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel and other eye-opening programs on cable. Keep in mind, though, that cable also has spawned “My Super Sweet Sixteen,” Lifetime and, of course, “Flavor of Love.” Somewhere between these two extremes of moderately enlightening and highly frightening lies the existence of cable news.
The three-faced juggernaut of CNN, MSNBC and Fox News has taken news from a 30 minute primetime affair to a non-stop, round-the-clock smorgasbord. While network news focuses on mostly local issues, cable news channels were meant to traverse the world in their presentation of topics. This idea of balanced news from all over the world all the time is great — in theory.
In practice, however, all 24-hour cable news outlets have defenestrated the idea of balance in their news coverage. Instead, just a few topics are focused on. Virtually all other topics only are mentioned in passing in the form of a picture or a small headline. The designated hot topic, in contrast, is dissected, analyzed, reassembled and re-examined over and over again.
Perhaps the best example of this is the phenomenon known as the U.S. primary season. If for some extreme reason you were not already aware, that’s right now. If the cable news channels’ coverage is any indication, there absolutely is nothing else newsworthy going on in the world at the moment.
As I’m writing this, CNN is on in the background — for research purposes. For the last 40 minutes, the three leading campaigns have been the exclusive focus. Every single campaign has a dedicated reporting team, and every minute detail is discussed and debated. The candidates themselves are nowhere to be seen, or heard. Instead, we are shown dark stages with manic, sign-waving mosh pits.
Meanwhile, new Israeli operations in Gaza that have killed more than 50 Palestinians in retaliation for rocket attacks are relegated only to a passing ticker at the bottom of the screen, along with coverage of the Russian presidential election. News of who might be the new leader of the largest country of the planet, and that of fresh violence in the world’s most volatile region are made to share space with the weekend weather forecast for Minneapolis and today’s NBA scores.
I wouldn’t feel nearly as disillusioned if the coverage of the campaigns focused on important things — like stances on immigration, social security reform or healthcare. Instead, I’m treated to an in-depth analysis of Sen. Barack Obama’s connection with controversial preacher Louis Farrakhan. There really is no connection. For those of you who care about this, unlike me, Obama is a member of church of a denomination whose national governing body sanctioned publication of a magazine that extolled Farrakhan’s good virtues — like organizing the Million Man March in 1995.
See what I mean about no connection?
This says to me two things. First, the church membership shows Obama is, in fact, not Muslim, as several imaginative (I’m trying not to use “lying”) right-leaning figures have insinuated. Second, it tells me that CNN and I have wildly differing definitions of “news.” Don’t think this is limited only to Wolf Blitzer and company. MSNBC and Fox News are just as bad. I just don’t tune to them as often because I don’t want my television programming to be connected with Microsoft (that’s the MS in MSNBC), and because I don’t want to listen to Bill O’Reilly twist the facts.
There certainly are times when cable news’ attention should be focused on one or a few things. The counting of votes from different primaries, attacks on or by our country, and natural disasters are examples of this. All the cable channels have continued to present informative, up to the minute coverage in situations like Super Tuesday, Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina. When most of the country and much of the world was looking to the Big Three cable news channels for updates, they all delivered.
Why can’t they focus on real news all the time? Don’t tell me there aren’t enough newsworthy things going on in the world. Even a cursory glance at the websites of the BBC, and even those of the U.S. cable news channels, shows how much is going on all over the world at any given time and how under-reported truly newsworthy things are. By not covering news from the other 190 countries of the world, and instead rehashing and reanalyzing old news and quasi-news, and these channels are contributing to the appalling global ignorance of most of America.
The promise, and dare I say, the original goal, of cable news at its inception decades ago was to present the news as it happened all over the world. That’s what should be happening. That can easily happen. The cable news channels can easily make themselves into what they should be. The manpower and the technology for the change are both there. Sadly, for those of us who want to know about more news more of the time, the cable news channels seem to be lacking in the most crucial requirement — the desire to change.
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