When Ted Turner launched CNN in the ’80s, he brought television news to a new frontier. The network featured 24-hour news coverage, something that had never been done.
It was done professionally and informatively. News that the anchors reported was relevant to our society, both locally and nationally.
Reporters for the network risked their lives by reporting from locations such as the front lines of the Gulf War to inform viewers of troubles overseas.
CNN was ingenious, and other networks quickly followed suit to try to compete with it during the ’90s.
A decade later, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC were the top three news channels. During 9/11, almost every U.S. citizen watched one of these channels as they witnessed the World Trade Center plummet.
The point is, 24-hour news was relevant and informative during these times.
But that’s enough history. These days, television news channels are feeding Americans trivial nonsense, at most.
Terri Schiavo’s struggle, while heartbreaking and, at times, gut-wrenching, did not require 24-hour coverage.
The television media disrespectfully and tastelessly showed Schiavo’s helpless form to the American public. Was it her wish? Was it her parents wish?
Even if the answer to one of these questions is yes, it was none of our business to begin with.
Today, as Michael Jackson sits in a California courtroom for the umpteenth time, news cameras are eagerly awaiting for the prince of pop’s emergence from the building, only to see him walk to his limo and ride off.
Ten years ago, this wouldn’t have happened. Oh wait, 10 years ago Michael Jackson was in court for supposedly molesting a little boy, the same reason he is in court now! Where were the news cameras then?
What is sad, though, is that we, the American public, are starting to believe that stories such as Jacko’s case are relevant to our lives because that’s what is displayed to us.
If Michael Jackson lost or won the case, how long would you actually care?
American troops have been in Iraq for three years, but the news networks hardly ever display coverage from overseas.
A group of troops was killed Wednesday, did you know? Probably not. That’s because news networks had to fit this tidbit of information in between the Jackson case and coverage of the Pope’s public viewing.
Another travesty that television news is guilty of today is open bias.
In any form of the news media, it is necessary to be unbiased, because news isn’t news if you only see one side of a story.
The Fox News Channel loves being biased. During this past year’s presidential election, the network brought democratic representatives and advocates on to talk shows, only to be told that their views are wrong or to be laughed at by a studio audience, at times even before they were able to open their mouths.
It is unethical to do such a thing, yet Fox News stands by its motto: “Only one network has news fair and balanced…Fox News.”
Defaming people just because they don’t agree with your beliefs cannot be defined as fair and balanced.
Ironically, the only news program these days that seems to be fair and balanced is the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and it’s not even a real news show.
Though, true as that may be, the Daily Show is relevant in that it is showing the American public that the real television news media is substandard. Stewart even went on Crossfire to confront the issue, and he was heard.
A few months later, Crossfire was cancelled.
Television news is a vicious cycle in and of itself, and it is in dire need of improvement.
Most issues are trivial, some of the networks, along with their anchors, are biased and content is often repetitive. It is a convoluted mess, and something needs to be done to fix this problem.
There is no excuse as to why network news is in the state it is. My only guess is that the networks must be misinterpreting the saying, “Bad news is good news.”
Tyler Stewart is a freshman communication major. He can be reached at [email protected].