A Digression

I’m sorry.  This has nothing to do with the Redskins or Washington.  But I couldn’t ignore it.  Today in Phoenix, two news helicopters crashed into each other trying to film a high speed chase for local news.  First, let me say that I feel for the families of all involved and that the following is not a criticism of the people on the helicopter.  They were just making a living like everybody else.

But if this is not an indication of how ridiculous the media and our country in general has gotten, I don’t know what is.  Local news is so obsessed with bringing us up to the second footage of every last minute detail of the so-called human drama that 4 good people are dead today.  Is a police chase news to begin with?  And even if it is, would the story be any more important with footage?  Would it have been less valuable to us the viewer had the footage been from a little farther off?  Would it have mattered to us if channel 5 had a little better angle on the whole thing than channel 7? I won’t even discuss the irony of the fact that pictures of the even were obviously taken by a third news helicopter.

Keep this in mind while I tell you another story.  Friends of mine (and for privacy reason I won’t say where or who) recently had an interesting experience.  A young girl was assaulted in their neighborhood.  They had nothing to do with it, and were not witnesses to anything.  But the attack happened in a grove of trees near their house.  That night, on the news, they saw footage being shown of their house on TV while the crime was being discussed.  It wasn’t the girl’s house.  It was my friends’ house.  It wasn’t even close to the girl’s house.  Later that night, they saw still photographs of their house on the web as well.  When they called the station to complain, the person on the phone didn’t even understand what the problem was and even told them that they had the nicest landscaping in the neighborhood.  They did eventually relent and take down the pictures.  But the point is this time the news was so gung ho about having tape of the event they put up tape and pretended it had something to do with the crime.

The news obsession with being first to a story and with snazzy videotape (whether it is real footage or not) has killed four people today and created a generation of journalists more concerned with the appearance of the news than its actual honest telling.  I’ll admit this is nothing new. Media is in many ways held to higher standards today than it ever was.  But as technology increases our ability to cover the news while it simultaneously increases competition for our eyeballs, this will only get worse.

Do yourself a favor.  Don’t stand for it.  Watch the news every time they talk about the war, or an election, or the environment. Stop watching the news every time they put on a car chase, or a red carpet, a story about a star adopting a baby, or a sex scandal.  Read Riggo’s Rag instead.  It might just save someone’s life.

Sorry for the digression.  Back to football from now on, I promise.

-DW