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The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

What’s wrong with news

10 comments on What’s wrong with news

What’s wrong with news

: This one headline from the AP says it all:

2,200 Journalists Await Jackson Verdict

It’s wrong not because the story is tacky but because the news is a commodity:

There will be one bit of news that comes out of the end of this trial: Guilty or not guilty. It takes one person to report that and today that word can spread around the world in no time and every news site and every TV and radio station and every blog can know it without sending 2,199 journalists to sit there and wait and repeat the exact same news.

Oh, you want to see how ridiculous Jackson looks under his umbrella as he gloats or mopes? Fine, give that one person a camera and hook it up to the internet. We’ll all see it. We’ll all be able to comment on it just like the chippies before the camera.

Guilty or not guilty.

You certainly don’t need legal analysts to explain that verdict to you. But you’ll have them.

Why are those 2,200 journalists there? Ego, pure institutional ego. The Daily Blatt thinks its readers give two hoots that its own reporter is there instead of running the AP’s story. MSCNNFOX news worry that without their own reporter and camera there, you’ll watch the other guy. But which one you watch is really just a multiple choice question in which all the answers are wrong: You’ll hear no newer, better, extra news on this story on one channel or another.

Those 2,199 extra journalists could be off reporting real stories we don’t all already know about. Or they could be fired, saving their employers money and saving us their moaning about the state of the news business today.

: 1115.org finds quotes from CNN head Jon Klein regretting the volume of Jackson coverage (can’t get to the original story becausae of a registration block):

ìIf I had one decision to take back, it would be the extent of our coverage,î says CNN/U.S. chief Jon Klein, six months on the job. ìLooking back, we should have just covered the beginning and the end.î …

ìWe committed to a reporter and crew there every single day,î Klein says. ìI have not found it to be a very satisfying meal. CNN ought to do stories nobody else has. We did what everybody else did. It was the safe thing to do.î

In terms of news value, the case ìwasnít even close to being the biggest priority,î Klein says. In the future, ìwe will be a lot more careful about committing to ongoing coverage.î

10 responses to “What’s wrong with news”

  1. Andrew Tyndall Avatar
    Andrew Tyndall

    Jeff–at least the networks’ nightly newscasts have learned their lesson. The 37-week-long OJ Simpson murder trial a decade ago occupied 15% of their combined newshole, for a stunning average of 43 minutes of coverage each week. The trials and tribulations of Michael Jackson, by contrast, have accumulated a mere 39 minutes of attention in the case’s 17 weeks, that is an average of just two minutes for all three newscasts combined, smaller than 1% of their entire newshole.

  2. Ethan Avatar
    Ethan

    I certainly agree that there will be an excessive number of journalists covering the Jackson verdict, but I’m not sure what the other options are…free press, free markets might not always be elegant, but it’s the best. Is there a free market solution to this problem?

  3. Nathan Lanier Avatar
    Nathan Lanier

    I actually made a post about this this morning. It’s good to see that you find it equally ridiculous, Jeff. I don’t know a single person that gives a damn about this trial or Michael Jackson. It’s the media circus that wasn’t.

  4. Reid Avatar
    Reid

    To quote Triumph the Insult Comedy Dog (QuickTime movie) on the media circus at the Jackson trial, criticizing the media is like booing at the Special Olympics.

  5. Ted Holmes Avatar
    Ted Holmes

    One single Blogger (or a small army) within a few miles of the Jackson verdict could capture and report the Jackson outcome live right along all the other million/ billion dollar outlets.
    Not that I’d read it ;), but I’d look forward to your “meta report” probably called: “The medium as the Message”. (pre-hint)
    Could be an historic moment for grass roots journalism.
    ted

  6. Vincent Avatar
    Vincent

    That’s something that’s always bugged me about the 24 hour cable news networks: they employ an army of reporters to cover stories that, simply put, AREN’T DEVELOPING.
    A few weeks ago, for instance, I was visiting my parents for a couple of days and they have cable. This was during the time when the “big story” was those two kids who got kidnapped in Idaho.
    At any rate, my mother would sit there in the evening for an hour or two before bed and watch Fox News’ coverage of the story. After awhile, she got tired of me grousing her about Fox and switched to CNN. Eventually I got bored and wandered off to another room to read. Coming back a little over an hour later, I asked if they’d reported anything new.
    Her reply was “no.” Neither Fox nor CNN (and, I assume, MSNBC) had presented a new fact for over an hour.
    What a waste of our time, as consumers of news, for them to literally waste hours endlessly bloviating over a story that has had no new developments for several days. No real coverage of international or domestic events aside from the on-the-hour blurbs or what have you.
    Nothing except a single-minded, laser-like focus on “the hot story.” Even of “the hot story” is colder than a slice of lunch meat.

  7. The Lonewacko Blog Avatar
    The Lonewacko Blog

    This is all a VRWC plot to distract cable news from covering the DSM.
    (The preceding comment, like BA’s comment in the Tommy Hook whistleblower thread, is meant sarcastically).

  8. Patricia Avatar
    Patricia

    They cover trials like this because they can be molded into neat, socially acceptable, narratives. They fill time.
    Note that no one is covering the Sami al-Arian trial in Florida–no neat, socially acceptable, narrative possible there, merely our national security at stake.

  9. JennyD Avatar
    JennyD

    Here’s why no one trusts the news. Because no one really cares about Michael Jackson except that he’s a freak. And actually, most people aren’t reading about Gitmo or any of it. They look the other way. Here in the heartland, all the well-meaning liberals don’t want to know about the deeds done to keep them fat and happy. They just want them done. Lots of talk about how Bush is an asshole, but what upsets people is not Gitmo but the fact that neighbors’ kids are in Iraq.

  10. Clifford Avatar
    Clifford

    This headline also shows us what is wrong with the MSM consumers.