What the hell is up with the Media?

Far be it for me to hop on the "blame the media" bandwagon, but in the past few years the mainstream media has just gotten absurdly ridiculous (redundant?).

Let's look at what's been happening:

• Rise in coverage of Sensationalist Journalism (i.e. Anna Nicole, Imus, Michael Richards)


• Openly partisan news organizations (i.e Fox News)


• The emergence of Reality TV (Tila Tequila, Kardashians, Flavor Flav)


• Obsession with the private lives of celebrities (Britney, LiLoh, Paris)
• The Internet serving to inform (specifically bloggers and YouTube)
  

That, my friends, is the perfect recipe for disaster.

Try watching any of the top 3 news organizations(CNN, Fox News, MSNBC) during primetime and you'll notice that you don't get news from these people, you get news infused with opinion. Of course since most Americans are uninformed they form their opinions based on how the news is presented to them.

Example:

Bill Clinton last week, while in NH campaigning on the trail for his wife, made a joke saying about Hillary "I cant make her taller, younger, male" and the media pounced on it claiming that Bill Clinton was playing the gender card and some even suggesting that Bill might be trying to sabotage her campaign.

Why would news organizations (and reputable ones at that) infuse so much bias and opinion into their stories? My answer would be the Bill O'Reilly effect.

When Bill-O arrived to Fox News he brought with him a brash attitude, partisan monologues, and a penchant for cutting off his guest's microphones. And you know what happened? The ratings went through the roof. Since then it seems that the news has been more interested in entertaining than informing.

Thus we have weeks of coverage on Anna Nicole, and Don Imus and Paris' jail stint, Britney's VMA performance and her child custody case and blah blah blah........

(Sidebar: I saw Lindsay Lohan's father outside of my office today and recognized who he was. Just another glaring example of the extent of her overexposure.)

I barely heard any news about the hundreds of deaths in Kenya that have shaken up one of the few stable countries in Africa. On the plus side, I did get to hear a lot about Hillary crying though.

As much as I mock the news though, it's more important than ever. What with the emergence of blogs and YouTube as expedient sources of news and information, the Edward R Murrow standard of journalism gets thrown to the wayside by shleps like me whose random ramblings entertain and inform with little accountability. That's why I'm harshest on the mainstream media. Because now is when they should be more accurate and unbiased than ever instead of emulating the blogging generation.

Just my thoughts.

To backtrack to the obsession with celebrity and Hollywood, the series finale of Extras had an amazing ending. If you're not familiar with the show, it's about a couple of British actors who are film extras looking to come up. Well in the finale, our main character, played expertly by Ricky Gervais, achieves success as a big comic TV star and, of course, lets it go to his head. So he becomes a Hollywood prick, turning down roles that he deems beneath him until he becomes a D-list actor. This forces him to do the only thing that will bring back his fame, a reality show.

Anyway, the final scene is great as he comes to a realization that all of the fame and popularity don't really matter. And not in a cheesy puffy way, but in a realistic gut-wrenching performance.