Marshall McLuhan Was Right

The latest example of (words don’t seem strong enough but I’ll try) the appalling abrogation of cable news’ journalistic integrity was in the handling of the "runaway bride" story by CNN on Saturday. They went wall-to-wall for hour after mind-numbing hour, endlessly repeating the pathetic and ultimately personal story of a stressed-out young lady who got cold feet before her wedding.

(I can’t speak for certain about FOX News’ coverage of this story, as I find it too angrifying to watch much of their transparent shilling for the religious and corporate right wing -- programming ridiculously touted as "fair and balanced." But whenever I flipped over to FOX, they were also giving some breathless report on this gal's escapade.)

It seems that CNN’s dream scenario is to handle one juicy story at a time, preferably one that is simplistic enough for them to attract an extra several ratings points away from the entertainment shows – never mind their responsibility as broadcast journalists to inform the citizenry of issues and events of social and geopolitical importance.

Their absolute heaven on earth – and I refer now to all the broadcast and cable outfits -- was the OJ trial, where they went long-term wall-to-wall (no doubt saving a lot of money on all that pesky and expensive reportage that their profession usually entails). Other examples include Princess Di’s death, the Bill Clinton blowjob saga, Terry Schiavo's struggle, the Scott Peterson case and the arrest of Robert Blake.

Saturday, for instance, there could/should have been some in-depth reportage of a rare presidential news conference, as well as the shockingly sharp increase in the Iraq insurgency bombings just as the government there finally turned the corner on its own formation. Plus other things, many other things, all more significant, albeit less "juicy" than the runaway bride story.

I swear that sometimes it seems like a Saturday Night Live or Mad TV sketch, when the news organizations pretend that they’re covering the most important thing in the world, a 9 on a 10-scale event, and in reality it's only a 1 or 2. But by so doing they make it important; something to do with "The medium is the message."