Oh the news, I guess I should have saved my “News-vertisers” post for this week but you can always say more about those who inform the nations.
The Russ Kick article was very interesting but not unique. A lot of the time when I watch the news I feel like I’m being duped. I guess that’s why it doesn’t bother me to not have CNN or any exclusive news channel because flipping between The National, CTV National News and CityTV news (the absolute worst), I have come to learn that coverage barely differs. Everyone gets the same facts and they are all diluted and censored in the same way. Think about it, even if Bush isn’t tell the Americans everything about Iraq and the CBC News is critical of him for it, do Canadians really believe they are in on everything happening in Afghanistan? I don’t think so, I have a feeling that there is probably a lot of footage out there that would cause us to riot in the streets about bringing our troops home.
BUT that is just my very uninformed opinion. And while I cannot blame the news disseminators for my ignorant state, I would need a lot more time to sift through the surface-y news reports, find unbiased or two-sided information and form my opinion from that. Instead, since I only have enough time to watch the evening news and listen to the radio in my car, I have maybe less than one side of every situation and I am completely confused! However, I believe that I am not the only one. I think there are many people like me who feel they do not have suitable means to make sense of current events in our world. For example, who is the good guy/bad guy in the whole Palestine vs. Israel thing? The US influence has been so strong in that story that the limited information I have seems like a fog of random reports. Is Harper really doing something about the environment? Is North Korea going to start the next world war? Why are they building more nuclear reactors in Toronto? What IS happening in Afghanistan and Iraq? Does anyone know how the Americans will keep the next election fair? Was the last one really unfair? Is Michael Moore nothing but a celebrity? Is bird flu going away just like SARS did or should we still buy Tamiflu and prepare for a pandemic? And what about AIDS, I haven’t heard anything about that since the late 90s, does it mean the threat has been minimized or we’re just not thinking about it anymore?
One thing that drives me the most insane is that celebrities like George Clooney, Bradgelina, Madonna, etc keep trying to beef up their fame by picking an underreported news story (ex. Africa, Darfur, kids, bile harvesting, etc) and pointing it out as a major cause to be aware of and do something about. I completely agree that we should do something about these causes and that there is A LOT of stuff in the world we need to change, but I am really angry it took a celebrity to inform me and even angrier that they get more publicity than the cause. If it’s news, I should know about it, both sides of it, but that’s too much to ask because the celebrities would have to go back to acting and singing songs. … And Bush would be kicked out of the Whitehouse but we won’t go there today.
In our textbook, the mention of the “news hole” as the space left over for news after advertising has been purchased seems very relevant to our own local news. Since Lethbridge is not a large city with as much crime and traffic as Calgary, the local news often must resort to filler to top off the news hole. I have a love/hate relationship with this as a lot of the filler is feel-good stories like “today school kids watched for the groundhog and cheered when their principle came out dressed like one of the furry fiends” – these make me feel good, although I do get the sense they are wasting my time a bit. Other filler, such as “one day we may tear down the Alex Arms hotel and revitalize the downtown” or “I am reporting live from the Canadian Tire Christmas tree lot and speaking to Nancy, Nancy can you tell me why the trees everywhere are drier than usual this year?” or anything to do with Mark Campbell I could do without. 
So that’s my ranting for today, I’m glad that people like Russ Kirk are pointing out what the rest of us are missing as a result of biased news coverage. I will leave you with an example of the kind of filler I wish CISA would include if it had to use any:
oh.. and yeah, Festivus for the rest of us. whoot.
like the “News- versiters” word. It is so true, and it is something I had not thought of before. That the news is advertising, I just thought it was accurate depictions of what is happening. I guess I did not stop to think that there are so many different points of view, there is no real “accurate” way of depicting something. It is so true that all stations have the same information, and display it the same way. I tend to wonder what ALL these stations aren’t telling us. If I had time to get out of my ignorant state, I suppose I would know.
I also wonder the underlying reason as to why celebrities bring attention to a tragedy not given enough tv time.