The Legacy of John Mark Karr: Time to Do Away with 24 Hour News Networks?
I just wanted to remind you of that. After all, MSNBC constantly reminded us of that fact during the last week. I have my doubts they will continue to remind us. So I will.
John Mark Karr got his fifteen minutes of fame and then some. In fact, in all likelihood this nerd received more air time on the 24 hour news channels than the genocide in Darfur, the fact that a US judge declared Pres. Bush’s NSA domestic spying program unconstitutional, or the report issued by the minority members of the House Justice Committee providing incontrovertible evidence that the White House misled the American public and Congress about the need to invade Iraq.
The question that must be asked at this point: Is it time to shut down the 24 hour news channels?
Quite obviously there is a real and pressing need for 24 hour news. Goodness knows, it’s not as if there isn’t enough going on in the world that 24 hours is too much time to cover it. The problem, however, is that none of these 24 hour news channels-neither CNN, MSNBC, or, especially, Fox-cover most of that news. Instead of reporting on substantive events taking place around the world, we get live updates on what alcoholic beverages a confessed killer was served on board the plane bringing him home.
MSNBC WAS FIRST TO BREAK THE NEWS OF JOHN MARK KARR ARREST.
Do you know how many Americans have died since Pres. Bush declared the end of hostilities in Iraq as he stood beneath a gigantic banner reading, ironically of course, Mission Accomplished? That’s huge, huge news, but the only time I ever see the figure is occasionally on a crawl. Thank God for Keith Olbermann, who should have been the one put in charge of MSNBC instead of Dan Abrams. Every night Keith Olbermann ends his show by reminding us how many days it has been since the end of hostilities in Iraq. What does Dan Abrams do? He comes down from the tower to anchor his old show for the first time since getting promoted. The topic? Nothing to do with Bush’s lies, or violence in the Middle East, or the fact that Osama Bin Laden is STILL on the loose five years after orchestrating the worst terror attack on America ever. No, the story that Abrams deemed important enough to come back to his anchor chair and conduct hours and hours of his investigative skills on wasâÂ?¦John Mark Karr and his confession to a crime it obvious from day one he never committed.
MSNBC WAS FIRST TO BREAK THE NEWS OF JOHN MARK KARR ARREST.
Talk about your gall! As I’m writing this, MSNBC just did a promo for a story to be coming up in the next segment. It’s about the Boulder, Colorado DA and the tagline is: What was she thinking?
Umm� MSNBC WAS FIRST TO BREAK THE NEWS OF JOHN MARK KARR ARREST. What were they thinking?
The problem, of course, is that 24 hours is a long time when you are expected to provide information that not only is supposed to be news, but even more importantly is supposed to bring ratings. The 24 hour news channels are not really in the business of providing news, any more than the regular networks are in the business of providing entertainment. CNN, MSNBC and Fox are all in the business of selling commercials. But companies don’t pay for commercial time if nobody’s watching. Therefore, each of the 24 hour news channels must compete for those company dollars by deciding which news-worthy events most people want to see. Let’s face it, live coverage of a police chase through the streets of Houston is always going to draw a bigger audience than a complex examination of the geopolitical struggles which resulted in the genocide in Darfur. Besides, video of dead Africans just don’t have the oomph of some dumbass Texas redneck in a pickup truck with a Dale Earnhardt memorial sticker on his back window sideswiping other vehicles and nearly running down pedestrians.
Apparently, the 24 hour news networks can’t police themselves. They not only have the inability to distinguish what is important, but they also lack the ability to decide on the proper amount of time to devote to news. Frankly, I have nothing wrong with any of the news networks informing people that Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan got into a catfight in which clothes were torn off, but, you know, give it thirty seconds and move on. Same with John Mark Karr. Yes, breaking news in the JonBenet Ramsey case is newsworthy now since it was the media in the first place that created the fascination in what really amounts to a child murder no more or less important than the thousands of other child murders committed since JonBenet’s death. But it is simply deserving of the coverage it was granted. Especially since it became evident almost within minutes that there was no way in hell this nerd was anything other than an attention hog.
MSNBC WAS FIRST TO BREAK THE NEWS OF JOHN MARK KARR ARREST.
With so much time to fill, the cable news networks have two choices. Either they can truly provide a public service by cramming in as much pertinent information as possible during any given 24 hour period, or they can go for the advertising bucks and engage in an endlessly repeating loop of the same information over and over. Even as he was reporting the John Mark Karr story Dan Abrams admitted that they really didn’t have much to report. This is the way all “breaking news” stories go. Whether it’s a courthouse shooting, a plane crash, or a big name crime story the cable news networks always play it the same way. They spend hours and hours of time on it, showing the same footage-in many cases meaningless footage that lasts less than a minute or two-they interview people who have no insight, they ask incredibly stupid questions that basically require some sort of psychic power to be answered. Then during the night they spend a few hours with Joe Scarborough or Nancy Grace showing the exact same footage they’ve been showing all day, bringing in even more “experts” who have even less insight.
MSNBC WAS FIRST TO BREAK THE NEWS OF JOHN MARK KARR ARREST.
Here’s an idea that’s just crazy enough to work. When you have absolutely no new information on a breaking news event, why don’t you go cover something else and then come back when you know something new? In the meantime, you can do a crawl on the bottom to update those who didn’t catch it the first time around. Wouldn’t that make better use of that crawl than a loop that informs us of the latest arrest of a Lost cast member or that Elton John is going to make a hip-hop album? And while we’re at it, here’s an even better idea. When the breaking news involves possible injury or loss of life to someone, why don’t you wait until you know exactly what happened instead of constantly reporting that someone was killed?
Remember the courthouse shooting in Atlanta a year or so ago? All the networks jumped on it, of course, and all of them kept reporting that a court reporter had been killed. It just so happens that I know a court reporter in the Atlanta area. I’m not particularly close with this person, but I paid attention to the story just to make sure. I can only imagine what listening to that news over and over and over and over again must have been like to all those across the country who have loved ones who are court reporters in Atlanta. Hey, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox, is it really so important to be the first to air with all the unsubstantiated details of a story? Wouldn’t you rather be known as the network that got it right first?
MSNBC WAS FIRST TO BREAK THE NEWS OF JOHN MARK KARR ARREST.
Which, finally, brings us to the final problem with 24 hour news channels. Because they are on constantly, the first to go live with breaking news often is the ratings winner for the rest of the day. People watching it call up their friends and say, “Hey, are you watching this?” and they tell them they are watching CNN or MSNBC or sometimes even Fox if they happen not to be interested in factual reporting at all. And they switch it over and they leave the channel there for the rest of the day.
It may be time to rethink the whole 24 hour news channel idea. It’s clearly not working. And the networks aren’t willing to fix the problem themselves. What should be done? Oh, and just in case you forget:
MSNBC WAS FIRST TO BREAK THE NEWS OF JOHN MARK KARR ARREST.
At one point, they didn’t want us to forget that. Now let’s not let them forget it.
