So, CNN's finished talking about the tragedy in Iraq today.

[VolcanoJen]

They've moved on to a "People In The News" episode, all about the life of Laci Peterson.

My disgust grows every single day. Unbelievable.

[wtmusic]

1. Y'know, Kobe's playing again

back to the priorities...

[prolesunited]

2. You must have read my mind

I have CNN on it the background, and I'm like :wtf: So, what's the next episode? Shark attacks? :eyes:

[nostamj]

5. there WAS a shark attack yesterday

woman lost an arm.

est. 12-15 foot

don't remember any details beyond that

[prolesunited]

9. I know that's not funny

but it did make me chuckle.

Do you remember the summer of shark attacks? I recall a media watchdog group did an analysis and found that there was not an increase in the number of attacks, just massive increase in the coverage.

[wryter2000]

3. Ye gods

Edward R. Murrow must be turning in his grave.

[maveric]

20. My journalist father is turning in his grave. He warned me about the trend

shortly before he died. That trend being sensationalism and diversion from the truth. He also was disgusted by the media being bought and paid for by the RW, and to expect it to get worse.

James M. Lenane 1931-2000

45 years as a news journalist in the Greater Boston area.


edit for spelling.

[caledesi]

4. 15 killed; 20 wounded...Move on, no story here. nt

[nostamj]

6. and on MSNBC ???

Hardball reruns!

[VolcanoJen]

8. Starring Ralph Reed, no less.

:puke:

[VolcanoJen]

7. And, actually, they did a pretty lousy job of covering the deaths today.

Wolf Blitzer spent most of his "Late Edition," the self-professed "Last word on Sunday news," interviewing folks about Iran's supposed "nuclear program."

Wouldn't one expect a major media news outlet to bring in a gaggle of military correspondents and ask them "How did this happen?? Given the numerous warnings about surface-to-air missiles and a 'Day of Resistance,' how on earth was this allowed to happen?"

I really need to unplug the television. Disgust disgust disgust... has anyone seen any journalists anywhere on television today??

[Marlie]

10. Last Sunday Souther California was burning

What did CNN cover? Same old reruns - guess they do take Sunday's
off which is pretty disgusting for an all news channel.

[TacticalPeek]

16. I hate to say this. I mean really hate to.

But just clicking around this am, I have to say Faux has decent Iraq coverage. Even when Snow brings in R's to counter a dem over casualties of war, etc., its still coverage of essentially breaking news.

Dana Lewis, reporting from Badgag, answering with perhaps reluctant frankness about the level of anti-American hostility (Iraqis dancing with crash trophies), mentioning hostility to US press.

Said his crew does not drive thru downtown Fallujah at night, nor do our troops, says there are NO patrols to be seen. His crew tries to appear not particularly American or journalist.

"We don't fly the flag."

Doesn't that break a Faux rule? Maybe Roger should go sport his lapel patriotism in Fallujah.

Still, Faux is covering it, spinning when they can (the SAM's are French or Russian).
Now they are covering two contractor personnel killed by roadside IED (?).

[PROGRESSIVE1]

11. Last week, their "People In The News" was the "Concorde"!!!

How can an inanimate object (airplane) be considered a person???

CNN is becoming for "Fox Like" every day!

:puke:

[maggrwaggr]

14. I find lately CNN is actually worse than Faux

i know it's hard to believe, but ever since Bush complained, they've been way over the line

[VolcanoJen]

17. I agree, maggrwaggr. With Fox, at least you know better than to tune in.

CNN's behavior today is shocking to me.

At least 18 Americans were killed in Iraq today (15 soldiers in the helicopter, 1 soldier in Baghdad, 2 civilian contractors in Fallujah, possibly 4 more soldiers in Fallujah, but unconfirmed), yet CNN doesn't really consider going live with this information and reporting from Iraq. Just shocking, inexplicable, and mortifying to me.

Fox, by the way, is talking about Lance Armstrong's latest romantic involvement, even though they're at a live news desk under the programming banner of "Fox News Live."

[imax2268]

12. So...

is this a sign that the media is being censored by the government...?
Not being allowed to focus on a story like the soldiers coming back in body bags not being allowed to be shown...

Or has it become that soldiers dieing daily is just not "newsworthy" anymore...?
Have the media become so used to reporting this type of stuff that they find it boring...?

Sorry but I don't find Lacy Peterson's murder and Kobe's "alleged" rape to be very important these days...

[Zomby Woof]

13. but what about JLo and Ben?????

I breathlessly await the very LATEST on those cute lovebirds. :eyes:

[VolcanoJen]

15. Two US Civilian Contractors have just been killed in Iraq.

SLOW NEWS DAY, HUH????

But CNN's continuing with Laci's life, and MSNBC broke with the story, briefly, but they're back to Hardball repeats.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=196152

[berry]

18. Same reaction here--I knew about the attack from the am news,

but couldn't get to the TV until just now. Nothing. So much dead space on TV on weekends--but one would expect them to be able to swing into action when there's something happening.

I suspect it's all about the famous anchorpeople wanting normal workweeks. Yet the viewers have the most time to watch just when the TV people take their time off. Why not offer some of this weekend time to hungry young journalists, producers, analysts, et al. who are willing to work during this down time? And how frustrating this must be to the reporters on the ground in Iraq who have stories to tell, but no one at home willing to put them on the air!

A question--is this the same in other countries? Here, this "news cycle" is taken for granted--everyone knows about government announcements on Fridays getting lost in the weekend wasteland. But it's not as if things HAVE to be this way. Another possibility--if stations are unwilling to change the order of things and the power/status order of their own companies by offering chances to the young, couldn't they set up some arrangement with a foreign network to show THEIR news programs live on the weekends? What is Canadian weekend TV like? Or British? (I suppose it has to be in English....)

No one has commented (at least I haven't heard it) on how bizarre it is to charge politicians hundreds of millions of dollars for tiny bits of TV ad time, when the stations are quite willing to WASTE broad swathes of air time with garbage in the ordinary schedule.

Wow--I didn't know I had so much rant in me about this until you opened the sluices by introducing this topic! Thanks (I think). I'll stop now...

ON EDIT--I just caught up on new posts in this thread. FOX cable isn't included in basic cable here in my part of CT, so that option (repulsive as it is) is out for me. Anyway, I didn't address the question of political pressure--and I agree that it must be part of why reporting on this very bad news from Iraq is not happening. Still, there's almost no scheduled live news on the weekends--and that's bizarre. Other businesses operate on weekends--airlines, restaurants, etc.

[VolcanoJen]

19. News *never* happens on the weekend... silly goose!!

:-)

Good rant, berry! I'd also be curious to hear from our overseas friends about their news cycles.

So, if 9/11 would have happened on a Saturday, would CNN be telling us about the alleged romance between Lance Armstrong and Sandra Bullock? Probably...

[Judi Lynn]

21. They have lost ALL resemblance to a news network.

CNN was a different organization altogether when Ted Turner introduced it to American news-hungry cable customers.