Mainstream news editors let us down

So here we are, just in time for the year-end lists of bests and worsts and New Year’s resolutions. We’re all here for pretty much the same reason – we like news – new, old, good, bad, serious, and silly. We like to know what’s going on. We all have our favorite topics. Examiner is so popular because there’s something for everyone. But the editors of “mainstream media” outlets must decide what’s newsworthy and what isn’t. They didn’t do such a good job this year. There’s been some pretty ridiculous stuff passing for news lately. News reports are supposed to inform the public, not just make profits for the media.

Tiger Woods’ marital troubles recently broke the record for appearing on the front page of the New York Post for the most consecutive days – nineteen. Would you care to guess which story held the previous record? Health insurance reform? President Obama’s inauguration? Nope. The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. It’s not because Woods is more important than the lives of 3,000 Americans. It’s because Rupert Murdoch knows that he will make more money from it.

It’s all part of a very disturbing trend. Michael Jackson’s death was top-story news in print, television, and online for two weeks, even though there was nothing NEW after the first few days. Then there’s the trifecta of bad parenting – Jon and Kate Gosselin, Nadya Suleman (“Octomom”), and Richard and Mayumi Heene, parents of the “balloon boy”. Every time it rains or snows, the local TV stations break out their “omg-severe-weather-watch-storm-tracker-the-world-is-ending-emergency-run-to-the-store-and-buy-toilet-paper-storm-coverage”. It’s winter in Pittsburgh, folks. Rain and snow are not news.

I suppose these topics have a place in sports, entertainment, and tabloid reporting. but serious news is for serious issues. Is it too much to ask the news editors to show some restraint, maturity, and intelligence? Why do we all have to endure this junk every day until our ears are bleeding? We all deserve our diversions and our guilty pleasures, but when the reports repeat themselves, then it’s not NEWS any more. There’s real stuff going on in the world.

Here are some topics that didn’t get enough news coverage:

With a 24-hour news cycle and plenty of cyber space, most news organizations didn’t even bother trying to dispel the many deliberate lies perpetrated this year:

· Barack Obama is not really the president because the oath of office was mangled

· the health insurance reform bills establish “death panels”

· the health insurance reform bills will require government funding for abortions

· the health insurance reform bills will require abortions

· the health insurance reform bills will abolish Medicare

· Congressional legislation is not available for the public to read

· no one in Congress reads the legislation

· President Obama is a Marxist/witch doctor/fascist/nazi/terrorist/racist/whatever

· Obama invented the concept of presidential “czars”

· the Employee Free Choice Act will abolish the secret ballot in union elections

· the North American Union

· the FEMA concentration camps

· the mandatory Obama youth volunteer corps

I guess it’s more important to list Tiger Woods’ tenth mistress of the week, or tell us again that Michael Jackson’s doctor is an idiot.

Perhaps in the New Year, news editors will use a bit more common sense and perspective when prioritizing their stories. Comcast just bought the majority share of NBC Universal. It’s too soon to tell whether their news coverage will improve, but it sure would be a great New Year’s resolution. We can only hope.

On December 28, 1971, Anti-war protesters peacefully ended their occupation of the Statue of Liberty.

From “Hidden History of the United States 2010 Calendar”, Progressive Magazine.