BREAKING
Cable news will be the downfall of civilization. As I was working out today, the day after MJ died, programming on CNN and FOX was captioned, “BREAKING NEWS: MJ something or other…” Sorry, but this sad event was breaking news yesterday. Camera shots of crowds waiting for a statement from police or old stock footage of MJ throughout the years does not constitute breaking news. Pearl Harbor, the assassination of JFK, and 9/11 were breaking news; developments in a day old story do not constitute breaking news. I have no problem with captioning the unfolding of further details here as “Ongoing Developments.” However, the misuse of the “Breaking News” tag is a cynical ploy by corporate media to capture our attention in an age where that very media has been instrumental in shortening our collective attention spans and fostering a culture of ahistoric sensationalism.
This entry was posted on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at 1:05 am and is filed under Commentary, Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
