INFOTAINMENT

A NEW WORD WAS COINED ABOUT 20 YEARS AGO-RIGHT AROUND THE TIME EVERYONE HAD CABLE TV AND A CHOICE OF ABOUT 15 STATIONS FOR THEIR NEWS-THE 15 OPTIONS INCLUDES THE NETWORKS-ABC-NBC,AND CBS- for a short time the networks held to the old standard when deciding what to broadcast on the nightly news shows- but cable pressed the envelope with more and more gossip and entertainment news and the networks soon followed- it is all about competition for viewers and the competition is very intense- i recognise the pressure to be relevant and viable- but the standard for news stories is low right now- you can hardly see a difference between what is entertainmant news and or hard news- the entertainmant category would include stories that are chosen mainly because they are entertaining as opposed to relevant or important-there are many examples i could give but i will stick to the most egregious cases- the first one that comes to mind- and probably will never be surpassed is the FAMOUS WHITE BRONCO CHASE-almost everyone saw it or heard about it at the time- it was around 1992 when oj simpson was arested as a suspect in the murder of his wife nicole- he was released on bail but told to remain in the area and report on any travelling he planned to do- as far as I know he was not supposed to leave the state of California- on the day of the bronco chase NBC was broadcasting an NBA championship basketball game- not an inconsequential event for sports fans and for almost every NBA basketbasll fan-NBC stopped there coverage of the game to switch to a livew broadcast of the Bronco chase- it was a critical point in the game- i found out later that every other network had done the same thing only earlier then NBC- the cable news stations were all covering it live- the problem was it only had the potential to be a significant news story if you want to call it that-if oj simpson went to the airport or tried to leave the state they would have some real news- but if he just drove around with 18 police cars following him there was no story- not really- and that is exactly what happened- he just drove around for a time and then went back to his house- meantime the network anchors were doing a sort of play by play of the event- it made them seem ridiculous as there was nothing really to report after seeing the police cars following oj's bronco-nontheless they stayed with the chase for over an hour with virtually nothing to show for it-and what made it all the worse was the absurdity of the situation-people who knew the networks were covering the event went out of their way to wave to the tv cameras and wave to oj- often shouting encouragenment or somethiong else who knows- but it truly looked like a circus event-and none of the networks had the good common sense or courage to leave the story and go back to regular programming-NBC was given a pretty harsh judgement at the time but all this has long been forgotten- what we have now is the equivalent of a car chase everyday-maybe not as memorable- but there is always some story the networks cover incessantly and the cable stations cover all day long- the michael jackson story is a great example- at first it made sense to cover it- even for a few days or until the memorial at the staples center- but now it has become absolutely ridiculous- every little thing said every little wrinkle in the story iis covered ad nauseum-the prescription drug controversy- latoya's claim that he was murdered= the child custody issue- anything and everything-i am tired of trying to watch the very significant Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings only to have the coverage interupted by something about Michael Jackson- or someother news story of dubious importance-this is not to say that all the stories are not important in some way- some are- but the coverage- incessant coverage- is just too much-nothing really important or new is reported- they use any excuse to give an update and almost anyone can get in on the story-the cousin of a pharmacist who filled a painkiller prescription for Mr jackson can get on the news for a short interview- ok maybe a I am exagerating now but anyone- virtuallly anyone can see my point- in fact they already know it-the first thing the networks and cable stations would say-after trying to justify these decisions-is that i can simply turn off the tv or watch something else- but when the Sotomayor hearings are on i don't want to- most of the time i just change the channell when they get off the story but virtually every station eventually does get off the story- to report the latest in a story that has not really changed in any apprecialble way-last thing- i noticed that when CNN does a panel discussion these day almost all the panelists are looking at their laptops- they are not even listening to one another- i see this on other stations as well- and the reporters at the sotomayor hearings are doing the same thing- anything at all could be on those laptop screens- just use your imagination for a minute-i will have more on this subject in a future article-one interesting statistic is the man hours lost in office pools when the NCAA Basketbsll tournament is going on- they find that an amazing percentage of office workers are watching the games on their computers or at least keeoping track of the scores- how many of these people also have a bet on the game-games or the entire tournament? - almost all of them would be my guess-all for now