> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On > Behalf Of John D. Giorgis > Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 5:44 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Lousy reporting > > > At 07:39 AM 2/3/2003 -0800 Nick Arnett wrote: > >Watching ABC this morning... > > Speaking of lousy reporting, I have to speak up and say that > there is *way* > too much emphasis on the human deaths in this tragedy.
I agree. It's kind of bizarre how they would barely touch the subject at first, then they go overboard. How many times did we hear reporters asking how the astronauts' families reacted? I didn't watch much coverage after the first few hours, but I heard that question multiple times. What kind of answer would even make sense? And there's the usual packaging of the story under a catchy title, as though one network could come out on top, not by covering the story better, but merely by "owning" it more. Packaging historical events is fine, but pretending that an emerging news story is original programming is offensive. This first really hit me was seeing and hearing something along the lines of "'Diana: Death of a Princess' will continue in a moment" within hours of her death. Hey, that wasn't in my "TV Guide!" I guess that the more news is packaged as if it were just another show, the less significant it becomes. And I suppose that the more the reporters are expected to behave as though it's just another show, the more reasonable it is to ignore appropriate boundaries. At the extreme, the astronauts' families become just characters in a drama, not real people... and the drama would be incomplete without them. Nick _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
