Turn to any 24-hour news network – CNN, Fox News or MSNBC – and I bet I can tell you what it will be showing.
One of them will most definitely be covering the most recent news from the War on Terror. Another might have a guest (such as a congressman or lobbyist) talking about his or her most recent bill or movement designed to help the nation out of the recession or improve fuel consumption over the next five years. Yep, pretty much all 24-hour news networks are the same; the only difference being the opinions they throw in during their “no spin zone” or “completely objective coverage” of a particular topic.
However, when something major happens in the world, something breaking or shocking, the news networks go into hyperspeed. They will cover the topic to death until you no longer care where Michael Jackson will be laid to rest or how many insurgents are left after the military air strike in Iraq as long as you do not have to hear about it anymore.
While the last two topics mentioned are very newsworthy and worthy of the media’s attention, there are those events which should simply happen, and then that is the end of it. There is no need to overanalyze it (or even analyze it at all) and bring in a “panel of experts” from varying backgrounds who can all give educated and professional opinions on the topic of Lindsey Lohan’s most recent arrest.
Let’s say, for example, two commercial airline pilots make a minor mistake and overshoot their destination by about 150 miles (which they did) and there was 78 minutes of radio silence between the aircraft and air traffic control (which there was), during which the pilots, with a combined 31,000 hours of flight time between them, accessed their personal laptops (yep, that happened too).
If this were to happen, a 24-hour news network such as CNN would go crazy with all of the coverage they could generate on the topic. Just imagine: They could start off talking about how irresponsible the pilots were and how they should be fired for the first blemish on their record in over 15 years. (Oh yeah, that will most likely happen as well.) Then, CNN could bring in a former pilot who would completely bash the pilots who made the mistake and go on about his pristine record. There would be questions regarding behavior inside the cockpit and whether or not pilots are 100 percent focused 100 percent of the time (seeing as they are human and not perfect, I’m going to go with a shocking no on this one). The news networks would then relate this event to a legitimately terrifying time in American history, such as 9/11, and reevaluate the safety of flying. Why, if the terrorists ever found out American pilots make mistakes every once in a while, they could definitely use this to attack our nation time and time again.
The sad thing is this did happen in the past week. It is sad the pilots were so careless and distracted that they overshot their destination by 150 miles with 144 passengers onboard. It is also sad the 24-hour news networks made this a breaking story and drew out the coverage for longer than should legally be allowed.
But what should we really expect from 24-hour news networks? The “24-hour” part of their names says it all. They must have stories to cover at all hours of the day, every day of the week. Try keeping yourself entertained for 24 hours straight. After a while, you would get tired of playing Madden ’10 or stalking your ex’s pictures on Facebook and would do anything to avoid boredom.
You see, it is not entirely the news networks’ fault. It is just the nature of their business. Sure, they were great for keeping up with the latest on Hurricane Katrina or the replacement of Pope John Paul II, but other than major world or national events, they just seem annoying and unnecessary.
After watching CNN or Fox News for more than 30 minutes, I become bored, angry or depressed. They can bore you to death with days upon days of Don Imus’ racial comments, anger you by being biased and covering one side of a controversial story or depress you when they show scene after scene of the country’s problems and disputes as if the world is about to end.
My point is not to bash 24-hour news networks, even though I do have some problems with them, but rather to raise the issue of their necessity and what should really be newsworthy. Want to know when not much is going on in the world? Just tune in to your nearest 24-hour news station and see how quickly you become bored with the latest set of sextuplets born or how the Drug Enforcement Administration made a new arrest in the war on drugs. Ask yourself, “Is this really worth watching?”
Ben Leiker is a sophomore majoring in biological engineering. He can be contacted at [email protected].