Monday, June 13, 2022

The media's ADD problem

        If I didn't know better, after sampling a few media outlets this morning, I would guess the war in Ukraine is over.  Literally months of 24/7 coverage of the war seems to have ended with first inflation, then the January 6 investigation, then the horrendous school and supermarket shootings taking all of our attention.   The aforementioned issues will quickly be subsumed by the media's quest for the next new thing which will keep us consuming their commercial messages.

      Once upon a time, the priority of news coverage was decided by a few news editors and TV anchors.  These men generally agreed on the importance of a given story and all of them came within a whisper of each other's coverage.   There is no one center of influence today.  We seem to be dragged in different directions by the most sensational story on any given day, only to drop that narrative as soon as another, more "urgent" one comes along.

    Maybe I am at an age where the multitude of media outlets and their constant roar makes me long for the simplicity of the 60s and 70s, at least as far as the gathering and broadcast of the news goes.

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