Good
News is No News
One of my first assignments at the University of Missouri
Journalism school, more than three decades ago, was taking a list of news
stories and arranging them in importance for placement in a radio newscast.
Of course, the most important story was your lead item and
you worked your way back to the least important, often a feature item akin
to "man bites dog."
My…how priorities have changed.
Over the weekend, while Web Today was reporting on stories
that could lead to nuclear holocaust in the Middle East, CBS Radio News (and
I use the term loosely) was reporting on the following items…
-
Tim Burton’s new remake of "Planet of the
Apes" grossed more than 70 million dollars in its first week of
release.
-
American Lance Armstrong wins his third consecutive Tour
De France bicycle race.
-
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is
conducting a controversial ad campaign in Britain opposing sport
fishing.
-
Killer whale Keiko is not adapting too well to life in
the wilds and may be recaptured for institutionalizing in a European
aquarium.
-
Wildfires in Wyoming and Washington state have not
destroyed any homes, yet.
To their credit, CBS did mention that people in Italy were
praying that Mt. Etna would stop erupting and gave a few seconds to a report
from Jerusalem announcing that 26 people had been injured in riots on Israel’s
Temple Mount.
In recent years, hard news has been replaced by the Gary
Condits and O.J. Simpsons of the world.
800 thousand people can perish in Rwanda or two million can
die in the Sudan and there might be an item below the fold on the back page.
The alleged suicide of unauthorized George W. Bush biographer James Hatfield
in an Arkansas motel room is dead on arrival at the corporate
mega-newsrooms. And the Iraqi invasion of Jordan is completely ignored,
reportedly at the request of well-placed American, Israeli and Jordanian
intelligence sources.
No, we need to know about Planet of the Apes and Keiko the
homesick whale.
I’m convinced when the "you know what" finally
does hit the fan, the American people will be so unprepared that they’ll
be led to seek answers from any friendly, authoritative voice given access
to a network microphone.
Two thousand years ago, the Bible named him…
Antichrist.