As most of you know, I work for a radio station in my hometown of Seattle, WA. My job requires me to stay on top not only what's new in music, but also what's happening in the news and pop culture. Because of this, I spend a lot of time going through emails, websites, and RSS/twitter feeds to keep on top of all of this so I can advise for my station and Air Staff to the best of my ability.
Now, news of a celebrity death is nothing new. From the time the broadcast media started, they have covered the death of a celebrity. One thing that has drastically changed is how big the celebrity had to be to get coverage. In the days of my idols, Murrow and Cronkite, you had to be a Head of State or an Icon (Monroe, Sinatra, Dean) to get even a mention on the evening news, and even then, you were lucky if it took up more than 2 minutes of air time.
With the development of the 24 hour news channel, comes the need to fill those hours with something to report on. In this crazy world, I don't see a lack of things to report on. War, famine, disease, charity work, extraordinary people, community events, ect. With all these other things to report on, why is it that every time I hear of a "celebrity" death, it is plastered across every news station for days? Why do all I see in the news agency feeds (AP, Reuters) is information and "news" stories I would come to expect to read in a supermarket rag or on a gossip site? Some of the supposed most reputable news agencies reduced to gossip rags.
Here's an idea... Maybe you can gain your credibility back with this one.
STOP REPORTING ABOUT EVERY CELEBRITY or PSUEDO-CELEBRTIY THAT DIES BY THEIR OWN HAND!!!
And since I'm on the topic...
A PERSON CHEATING ON THEIR PARTNER IS NOT NEWS WORTHY NO MATTER HOW HIGH PROFILE THEY ARE!!!
This year, it seems it was a bad year for "celebrity" deaths. I can't remember a month this year that I wasn't reading through story after story after story of a celebrity dying, mostly due to a drug overdose or some other form of self inflicted death. The other popular story to report is infidelity inside a "celebrity" marriage. Stories about him cheating on her or her cheating on him. I seriously could have written an entire book out of just the headlines that I have seen out of news agencies that are about these 2 topics.
While any loss of life is unfortunate, why does the fact that these people lived in the public eye make it news-worthy? When medics get a frantic call from a housewife at 3am because her husband is face down on the bathroom floor not breathing, is a news crew following along? When the cops find a junkie on the streets dead after her dealer hot dosed her for not paying, are reporters banging on every door to find the leads? And what about the families that are torn apart everyday because one partner doesn't stay faithful to the other? Where's the news story about the mother of 3 kids who was able to stay at home and raise her kids who now has to go work 2 jobs to make ends meet causing her to barely see her kids because dad couldn't stick to the vows he made? Where's the in-depth coverage over the man who contracted HIV through his wife of 10 years because she was out having unprotected sex behind his back?
How are these stories any less tragic or unfortunate as any celebrity? Why do we always here about celebrities having these problems, but when it happens to an everyday person, it goes totally unnoticed?
Have we as a society become so obsessed with the lives of the people we see through the TV that we have forgotten to care about our own neighbors? As a society have we stopped caring about what's really happening in our world? Why do we allow these news agencies to run with this garbage and not tell us what's really happening in the world?
Now, news of a celebrity death is nothing new. From the time the broadcast media started, they have covered the death of a celebrity. One thing that has drastically changed is how big the celebrity had to be to get coverage. In the days of my idols, Murrow and Cronkite, you had to be a Head of State or an Icon (Monroe, Sinatra, Dean) to get even a mention on the evening news, and even then, you were lucky if it took up more than 2 minutes of air time.
With the development of the 24 hour news channel, comes the need to fill those hours with something to report on. In this crazy world, I don't see a lack of things to report on. War, famine, disease, charity work, extraordinary people, community events, ect. With all these other things to report on, why is it that every time I hear of a "celebrity" death, it is plastered across every news station for days? Why do all I see in the news agency feeds (AP, Reuters) is information and "news" stories I would come to expect to read in a supermarket rag or on a gossip site? Some of the supposed most reputable news agencies reduced to gossip rags.
Here's an idea... Maybe you can gain your credibility back with this one.
STOP REPORTING ABOUT EVERY CELEBRITY or PSUEDO-CELEBRTIY THAT DIES BY THEIR OWN HAND!!!
And since I'm on the topic...
A PERSON CHEATING ON THEIR PARTNER IS NOT NEWS WORTHY NO MATTER HOW HIGH PROFILE THEY ARE!!!
This year, it seems it was a bad year for "celebrity" deaths. I can't remember a month this year that I wasn't reading through story after story after story of a celebrity dying, mostly due to a drug overdose or some other form of self inflicted death. The other popular story to report is infidelity inside a "celebrity" marriage. Stories about him cheating on her or her cheating on him. I seriously could have written an entire book out of just the headlines that I have seen out of news agencies that are about these 2 topics.
While any loss of life is unfortunate, why does the fact that these people lived in the public eye make it news-worthy? When medics get a frantic call from a housewife at 3am because her husband is face down on the bathroom floor not breathing, is a news crew following along? When the cops find a junkie on the streets dead after her dealer hot dosed her for not paying, are reporters banging on every door to find the leads? And what about the families that are torn apart everyday because one partner doesn't stay faithful to the other? Where's the news story about the mother of 3 kids who was able to stay at home and raise her kids who now has to go work 2 jobs to make ends meet causing her to barely see her kids because dad couldn't stick to the vows he made? Where's the in-depth coverage over the man who contracted HIV through his wife of 10 years because she was out having unprotected sex behind his back?
How are these stories any less tragic or unfortunate as any celebrity? Why do we always here about celebrities having these problems, but when it happens to an everyday person, it goes totally unnoticed?
Have we as a society become so obsessed with the lives of the people we see through the TV that we have forgotten to care about our own neighbors? As a society have we stopped caring about what's really happening in our world? Why do we allow these news agencies to run with this garbage and not tell us what's really happening in the world?
It saddens me that I have to spend most of my day sifting though all of this JUNK to find the real news stories. I want to spend my day being informed on what's actually happening in the world. I want to read more stories about people striving to make this world a better place for all of us, not who what caught doing blow while underage at a nightclub. I want to hear stories about people taking their time and resources to rebuild, not about some celebrity douchbag that can't keep it in his pants.
What ever happened to integrity in Journalism?
Where's Walter and Edward when you need them?
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