Comments on: The Fickle Media Machine

By: Tully

Tully — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:47:02 +0000

PS — “Cardiac arrest” is just a term meaning “He’s dead, Jim.” It’s NOT a cause of death, it’s a definiton of death. Heart quit beating and won’t start again, you dead. Find out WHY the heart quit beating, and you have a cause of death. OD, heart disease, arrhythmia, bradycardia, anoxia, transecting .357 caliber projectile, whatever.

Something to remember when you hear “died of cardiac arrest” from the media. It means “He’s suddenly dead and we don’t know why, but he wasn’t abruptly and obviously dismembered and/or decapitated.”

By: Tully

Tully — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:32:10 +0000

Why should I trust the media ?

You shouldn’t, Paul. At their best they’re like Wikipedia — someplace to get a starting point for research, but not to be trusted for accuracy.

By: the Word

the Word — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:36:34 +0000

I’m reminded of an old National Lampoon record with a truism. “We play a lot of shit, but that’s what you want to hear” There is no other explanation for Fox.

By: Nick Benjamin

Nick Benjamin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 05:16:32 +0000

I’m not sure I’d say I’m distraught over MJ’s death. It’s always a tragedy when somebody dies, but if you get distraught when complete strangers die you’re gonna spend your whole damn life distraught.

They aren’t dumping Iran coverage just because most people are more interested in Michael Jackson. They’re dumping it because it’s really, really expensive and really, really hard. You need people to translate Farsi, probably some folks to translate other Iranian languages like Azeri or Kurdish. You need to talk to obscure Iran-watchers who live along way from your base of operations in NY, LA, and/or Atlanta. Places like Ann Arbor, or Fargo. Ideally you have folks monitoring twitter, Facebook, the Iranian state media, and Al Jazeera 24-7. This is al very expensive,and requires that you bring in skilled outsiders because there ain’t no way CNN has enough Farsi speakers already on staff to do all that shit.

OTOH for the MJ story you’ve already got scores of reporters on the ground covering the entertainment beat in LA. All those guys have to do is camp out at the coroner’s office and maybe a few other places. Send somebody to Gary, try to put a tail on the rest of the Jackson Five, have the stay-at-homes in NYC and Atlanta talk to random fans about Michael, and *poof* you just filled most of your programming day without going a single penny over your normal operating budget.

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:01:09 +0000

Why should I trust the media ? It’s about ratings and money. Not an Edward R. Murrow anywhere. Media types are “personalities”. I’l use the BBC or Reuters for my information.

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:58:22 +0000

I have the same comment/question every time I see something along these lines: To what extent to you think the media is giving the American public exactly what they want, in contrast with a mistaken impression on the part of the network controllers decisions as to what they want us to want? I assume the former Examining the incredible popularity of the trashiest, most tabloid infested television shows leads me to believe that the MSM is directly marketing to the average america rather than manufacturing interest in shallow, easy stories. The media reports excessively on MJ today at the expense of Iran because we, the general populace, demand it.

By: Jake

Jake — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:46:30 +0000

MJ sleeps alone at last.

By: kranky kritter

kranky kritter — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:44:14 +0000

I don’t even get being distraught. A talented aging pop star died. So what? The only thing I’m distraught about is how difficult it will be to avoid the 24-7 balls to the wall overkill, followed by the inevitable retrospectives and special issues.

I don’t think fickle is the right word by the way. Fickle implies hard to predict. This reaction is very predictable. Because ratings are what matter, an entertainer’s passing will be covered with at least as much coverage as the death of a president or king or a natural disaster.

So, let the revisionism begin. Put the young normal looking pre-pedophile pre-goblin Jackson on a postage stamp like the Young Pretty Elvis. Don’t anyone dare go to the Michael Jackson funeral and ask the attendees who the Vice President is, which Korea is an ally of our country, or where Argentina is.

By: Agnostick

Agnostick — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:33:20 +0000

Nancy and Greta should be pleased–their program material should be covered well into January.

Agnostick
agnostick@excite.com