I think it's pathetic that "Idol" News gets listed as "Top US News" . . .

[kid a]

on MS websites and print.

:puke:
:rant:

[The Straight Story]

1. Well, I guess the question is then: What IS news? How do you define it?

One could argue it is that which a large portion of the reading populace desire to know, and as a paper/station your job is to give them the information they desire to know.

Just saying :)

[rman]

3. It can be argued, but is it true?

What are the arguments? How does one know what news people want to hear about?

If 80% of Americans want nationalized health care, while in the media and in politics that is a complete non-issue - then what does that say about media representation of public interests?

[The Straight Story]

5. News is based off ratings and how many replies I get here at DU

Example,
I posted the article about girls and the ama warning them about spring break. Well over 100 replies.

I posted several articles about the government, new contract with america from gop, and so on and got so few hits they are probably on page 1000 by now.

Idol ratings are high, sex sells to, government stuff is dull.

And just wait until we take the congress and white house, this place will be real dull :)

[Wilms]

4. I think you're right.

And "that which a large portion of the reading populace desire to know" is what strikes as most pathetic.

[The Straight Story]

6. People don't want educated too much

They want to be entertained. They work all day, have activities with the kids after work, want to go fishing, to ball games, etc. They don't have time for things that involve hours of analysis on budgets and such. Give em a few nuggets that they can relate to, move on to next story.

I don't blame people really. Hard to find time to wade through the crap on local, state, and federal level. Not to mention all the damn legislation and million page budgets. Why waste your life with such things when life is so short? Do fun stuff, let politicians do their thing and slide by, and if they really piss you off and affect your life in a direct way, then you vote em out.

[arcane1]

7. like Concrete Blonde says:

They don't know who to run to
They don't know where to go
Unless you tell them what to think
They don't know what they know

[Syrinx]

2. well, who got canned? Inguiring minds...

Seriously, I agree with you. It's cool if it's "top showbiz news," but that's just silly to call it the top US news.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. Of course it's pathetic, but...

you might have noticed "Idol" gets much better ratings than any boring old news show.

A whole lot better than C-SPAN.

And you'll notice that the sports and entertainment sections of the papers are a lot thicker than the hard news sections. Damn Newsday here hits the spot with investigative reporting once in a while, but they usually have more on high school soccer than what's doing in Albany or Washington.

A few years ago I was watching one of those roundtable things where some news types were talking about why serious news isn't on the news. Seems one station out West somewhere tried to do in-depth stories about serious stuff and their ratings tanked.

So much for that idea.

Newspapers and magazines have always been fighting for readers and ad dollars, but TV news started out with the Fairness Doctrine, public service requirements and all sorts of other stuff, so we got Murrow, Cronkite and the other good guys who spoiled us. Now, they're profit centers and in the same spot the other media are in so we're all stuck with what sells.

[ClintonTyree]

9. "News" in this country.......

has been reduced to infotainment. Actual investigative reporting is a thing of the past. Crap like this was once relegated to the pages of "People" magazine, now, it's considered front page "news" while the REAL stories that have long reaching and lasting effects on our country are ignored or given short shrift.

The corporate news whores just want to entertain us, not inform us.