Three Rings of Shock and Awe
The media circus is back in town.
Twenty-four-hour coverage of nothing. Gaggles of
reporters and anchors on duty to report the latest
fender bender or kitchen fire in Baghdad the moment
it happens. No story is too small to be reported
and repeated a hundredfold. No cliché is too
tired to use in every third sentence in order to
drum up "shock and awe" in a bored television
audience.
War may be hell, but the television news
networks love it—especially arch rivals CNN
and Fox News. Since 9/11, when CNN dominated the
nonstop televised mayhem, Fox has overtaken the
cable news network to become #1. Now, with a new
international crisis to cover like a dead horse,
Fox struggles to keep its place while CNN jockeys
to retake the top spot. And they'll stop at nothing
to out-sensationalize one another.
Last night, a Fox News anchor interviewed a
brassy ex-military-officer-turned-consultant (of
which there are far too many) shortly after the
ridiculously named "decapitation attack." Suddenly,
in mid-conversation, a visual of a Navy ship firing
cruise missiles replaced the talking heads
onscreen. The obviously nettled news anchor had to
interrupt the military hawk to explain to viewers
what they were seeing. Apparently the Pentagon had
just released the cruise missile footage to the
news pool. Rather than exercise even a small
measure of restraint by waiting to run the file
footage after the interview, the network just threw
it onscreen with no introduction or explanation, as
if it were happening live. They didn't dare risk
the chance of another network showing it first.
I'm saying nothing new here. We saw such
journalistic feeding frenzies before 9/11, and
we'll see them again after Gulf War II. They are an
inevitable byproduct of the information revolution.
And I suppose information can be useful. The
constant news updates keep us informed about
anything we could possibly want to know, and being
informed makes one a good citizen in a democratic
society. But, as with everything, one can get too
much of a good thing. And the news media could
learn a thing or two about the military
intelligence concept "need-to-know." Sometimes the
media cross the line during wartime coverage to try
to get that exclusive angle. Do we really need to
know the down-and-dirty details of the military
operations as they happen, or even right after they
happen? I agree that we have a right to know, since
we're paying the bill, but what's the rush? To us,
such instantaneous information constitutes harmless
voyeurism, but to Saddam Hussein, it could be
valuable intelligence. All for ratings.
While the might of the U.S. military has yet to
elicit "shock and awe" with the impressiveness of
its prowess and precision, the news media has
certainly shocked and awed me with its amazing
ability to create 24/7 programming out of virtually
nothing. Let's hope there's a good "Seinfeld" rerun
on tonight.
Development note: I've
noticed that this site doesn't look like it should
in Netscape Navigator. Rather than waste time
jury-rigging it to look right in a
soon-to-be-obsolete browser, I'll just add the
cliché "This site best viewed with Internet
Explorer."
©2003 Michael
Strickland ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
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What is "The Daily Strick"?
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Previously...
3/19:
Paris—A
Beautiful Blur
3/18:
Ignorant
Idiot Man
3/17:
The
Pirate Queen
3/16:
To
War or Not to War
3/15:
So
Long, Seau
3/14:
Telemarketing
Pays
3/13:
Free,
For Now
3/12:
Chicken
Little Gets Respect
3/11:
Axis
of Evil
3/10:
Writing
Kept Me From Writing
3/9:
King
Arthur
3/8:
The
Women are Smarter
3/7:
Salt
on Old Wounds
3/6:
3/3/03,
3:33 p.m.
3/5:
Beer
Day
3/4:
Pulling
the Trigger
3/3:
Make
'Em Laugh
3/2:
Whither
Iraq?
3/1:
Strickland
Cellars
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