What’s Hot/What’s Not: 06/28/09
What’s Hot:
Hypocrite – Gawker ambushes FNC’s Ambusher-at-Large Jesse Watters outside his home. Watters, showing his ability to take it as well as dish it out, turns tail and runs away…or rather drives away in his car.
Mark Sanford – Sanford dominated the news cycle. Until someone died that is and then cable news lost all sense of rationality and proportionality and imitated that scene out of Jerry McGuire…”Show me the ratings!”
Olbermann and Sanford – This is hot because it’s being talked about, not because I necessarily agree (or disagree) with the way Olbermann went about reporting the story (I haven’t said publicly one way or the other how I feel actually). Olbermann went after Governor Mark Sanford for his little trip to Argentina to hook up with his mistress. Some people didn’t like how Olbermann handled it and a few posted those thoughts on Daily Kos. Whether they were real Kos people or Trolls I have no idea. But they caused a big bruhaha in either case. And that got noticed by the Right which pounced saying the Kos-ites are in disaray over Olbermann, or something to that effect. That, in turn caused Olbermann to post on Daily Kos that they should basically appear united for appearances sake and not fight in public. Or something like that. Oh, and Joe Scarborough called Olbermann out too, though he didn’t mention him by name.
What’s Not:
Selective Editing – CNBC got caught taking some iPhone comments way out of context in a report on the iPhone’s launch.
Michael Jackson Coverage – It’s like all the worst celebrity scandal coverage (Paris, OJ, Britney, Anna Nicole) rolled into one. Magnified by 10.
June 28, 2009 at 4:37 pm
True, Mark Sanford coverage got bumped for that of Michael Jackson. But both bumped the crisis in Iran, which, as far as I can tell, is still going on.
CNN and Fox (forget MSNBC) were highly criticized two weeks ago, right after the election, because of scant coverage. Then both networks got involved, basically getting electronic media fed to them by the masses in Iran. And these networks in turn got their viewers engaged, IMO. But now we’ve all been “dumbed down” again with the endless tabloid coverage these past few days.
We Americans have a short attention span. Whether it’s our networks just not covering the situation in Iran, or the fact that the state over there is succeeding in squelching the news, I don’t know. But it was good to see our networks actually covering a significant international story. This (and covering stories of national significance) is why they exist!
June 29, 2009 at 3:39 am
Very true, Missy. Although there is always CNN international, the cable news nets should at least balance out their coverage. Sure, Jackson’s sudden death was a major story but as noted in the hot/not hot posting, they’ve already turned it into another Anna Nicole debacle. I tuned in a bit on Saturday and already they are interviewing doctors who are tossing out all kinds of conjecture as to what could have been the cause of death while they announce that toxicology reports won’t be finished for about a month.
June 29, 2009 at 3:46 am
Regarding Olbermann – what I find facinating about the guy is how he loathes O’Reilly yet in many ways is a lot like the guy. Both O’Reilly and (apparently as well) Olbermann are very sensitive to any sort of criticism. One op-ed in a newspaper that criticizes O’Reilly turns the paper into a “dishonest, dispreputable” news source that has suddenly lost all credibility. In a similiar vein, Olbermann tries to welcome constructive criticism while denouncing it and warning that something posted on a blog could lead to him being replaced by Rick Santelli.