On Saturday’s Journalism panel, there was a fair amount of discussion around cable news. Many bemoan the rise of Fox News but several panelists argued that CNN is “just as bad.” They’re right. It’s terrible.
I’ve rarely watched any cable news because it’s just so excruciating and replacing TVs that have been destroyed by bricks being thrown at them is expensive. The only time I watched cable news for any length of time was in the immediate aftermath of Katrina. And obviously the circumstances around that were deeply personal. I still got better news out of the local Jackson area news media and particularly the stations that provided temporary employment to some New Orleans area reporters.
Pretty soon I’d found WWL online and blog posts from Jon at Cork and Bottle wine shop and I was getting much more relevant and informative news. I think I watched all that news for maybe a week before I’d weaned myself off completely. And today I just can’t watch CNN for 5 minutes. If any one of these channels is all someone is watching to get their information, they’re deeply misinformed. It’s easy to understand, in retrospect, how all those post-Katrina myths have persisted three years later.
Here’s some essential reading, shamelessly stolen from Library Chronicles pre-RTIII Homework assignment:
- Eric Alterman, “Out of Print
The death and life of the American newspaper” The New Yorker March 31, 2008 - Bill Moyers, “Is the Fourth Estate a Fifth Column? Corporate media colludes with democracy’s demise” In These Times July 11, 2008
- David Simon, “Does the News Matter To Anyone Anymore?” Washington Post January 20, 2008
Scott Harney
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