Journalists dread that thing called a slow news day. It means nothing important’s going on, but we still have airtime or pages to fill, so we better find something.
This week we had millions rioting and threatening to topple governments in Thailand and the Ukraine. President Obama took up the problem of government spying. Prime Minister Harper made some big speeches in Israel.
But little of that seemed to fall into the category of “News”. Over at MSNBC, they literally cut off an important interview on the changes to the NSA so as not to miss Justin Bieber appearing in court on a DUI.
You can see that stark revelation of network priorities here.
It was one of those moments when you realized that the people broadcasting the news really have no idea of what’s important anymore.
And there isn’t a better example of that across all news services in the US and Canada than the “firestorm of controversy” created last Sunday by a Seattle Seahawks player for ten seconds of trash-talking after a hard won game.
The clip ran repeatedly, followed by panels debating everything from the decline of sportsmanship or civility to whether reacting to the video made you a racist.
For anybody who has actually watched a football game, those ten seconds were:
1) Some guy high on adrenaline blowing off steam (if you were a fan of his team).
Or
2) Some guy talking out his ass (if you were not a fan of his team).
Either way something worthy of immediate dismissal.
But no. Those ten seconds had to be parsed, explored and revisited endlessly. It was as if a Seattle Seahawk had replaced the sacrificial dove of a Roman Oracle so our Media could study its entrails.
Let’s hope no Journalists catch the following on their next slow news day or things could get seriously out of hand.
Enjoy Your Sunday.
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