Over yonder, Jim Geraghty has a great analysis of the forumulaic bias of MSM nightly news:
The network evening news has become a half-hour analgesic, chopped into snippets divided by commercials for over-the-counter cold medication, prescription drugs, or cure-alls for gastrointestinal distress, for those who want a cranky 73-year-old [i.e., Dan Rather] to tell them what to think.
The evening news is designed for the attention span of an overcaffeinated ferret, with the standard story hitting a predictable rhythm: B-roll footage of an “ordinary American” doing something ordinary — getting her kids ready for school or cooking dinner. Then the inevitable “but.” “BUT — like millions of Americans, Mrs. Smith says her health insurance isn’t covering enough of her expenses.”
Cut to correspondent standing in front of Capitol dome. “Congress is considering legislation about this issue, but Republicans and Democrats disagree.” A one-sentence sound bite of a Democrat saying, “We need this program.” A several-word sound bite of a Republican saying, “But how are we going to pay for it?” Cut to Heritage Foundation type, identified as “spokesman for conservative activist group,” saying some massive new government program isn’t necessary. Cut to some left-of-center type identified as “Harvard professor and health policy expert,” saying, yes, this massive new government program is necessary.
Cut to Mrs. Smith, saying how hard it is to make ends meet, and how she thinks the program would help her a lot. Then the closer: “Whether Mrs. Smith gets what she needs, or whether her children Brittney and Skyler have to go without those benefits, only time will tell. Firstname Lastname, Network Evening News, Washington.” Elapsed time: Just over two minutes. Repeat another ten times. Close with “Courage.”
Meanwhile back at the ranch, one of Geraghty’s correpondents suggests that he needed to tweak one element of this:
Your stereotype of the need-government-please story is great, except it’s atypical that Heritage gets to speak! The conservative side is usually [White House press secretary] Scott McClellan saying something nervous and defensive, like "we have always felt old people deserve the right to live beyond 65."
In his main story, Geraghty adds:
Anyone who actually wants to know more about the news is reading a newspaper, reading magazines, reading blogs, and watching the cable networks. For all the mockery that cable-news debate shows get from established news folks, it’s worth noting that they have at least two people of differing opinions talk about the same subject for five or six minute segments. And instead of trying to encapsulate a four or five-minute interview in one or two sentences, the talking heads get to speak (and sometimes shout) in strings of sentences. They get to make points and challenge each other’s arguments. And the viewers get it straight from the source, instead of summarized by a correspondent.
Preach it, Brother Geraghty! Preach it!
Death to the old media! Long live the new media!
The revolution will be blogged!
🙂
Here, Here!