When I was a kid a long time ago, the TV and newspapers adhered to the Who/What/Where/When/Why/How of news collection.

Now, they don't appear to even try to get it right. They don't even know how to provide the basics. They apparently don't know how to do any kind of minimal research, they ignore the obvious.

But they are quick to pass rumors off as facts because it might draw a few more people to their web page to expose them to their advertising.

Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, they reported all kinds of crimes that never happened. When buses were ordered to the Superdome to pick up the survivors who had been quietly waiting for several days, the bus drivers were terrified of being shot by (false) media-reported gangs of armed men marauding through the streets of New Orleans, so the drivers parked the buses about 30 miles away and walked off. Authorities had to find people to drive the buses the last 30 miles.

These highly paid 'reporters' (*derisive snort*) are more interested in making sure they look good on camera than actually providing information. And it isn't just one or two sources, it's all of them

I went through about ten news articles about the Joplin, Mo tornado before I could find out what general time of day it hit. Evening. Great. Before dark, after dark? Still haven't found out what time period it happened.

News? Responsibility in reporting? Not in America.

Sue

Guess you missed the news link that CanoeDogs shared in his "Tornado Rips North Minneapolis" post.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Hennepin County officials say one is dead, at least 22 are injured and devastation is widespread after a suspected tornado touched down just before 3:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

The news sucks because of the adjendas of the various and sundry news organizations and the reporters themselves.

Look at Dan Rather. He killed his career because he wanted so badly to believe a false story. Didn't fact check, didn't do his due diligence, just aired a cockamamie story and he paid the price. He's not the guy who reported on Kennedy's death from Dallas, he's the moron who tried to hang Bush with false facts.

Local news may be better or worse than national. I seldom watch the evening national news, as they determine what's news, who will be the bad guy, who is to blame, well before they even get to the event site.

Joplin is nowhere near Minneapolis. They are separated by about 590 miles/950km; so the time reference for Minneapolis is useless as a reference point for Joplin.

Maybe they're catering to what people want, tasty baby food. Compare the writing style of magazines and newspapers from the 1950-60's to todays rags and you'll be amazed at how dumbed down everything has become. Its really disturbing.

Competition to get the viewers first is all about advertising money?

Thanks. I stand corrected.

as someone who used to work for one of the big 3 networks supporting their news division, you have to remember - who is the customer?

TV Networks exist to do ONE thing - they sell eyeballs to advertisers

Anything else that happens is secondary to that

The news media is a business, and they need to get good ratings to make money. To do that they present drama and controversy. TV news is more entertainment than information. It takes a while, but you have to really dig to find the news outlets which present more information with minimal attempts at influence and dramatization.

Recommend reading "The Age of Propaganda" by Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson. It is a good education on techniques used by and in the media to influence. Once you understand the techniques of influence, they do not work as well on you; sort of an inoculation. Then you become better at assessing the veracity of reporting. A good understanding of the business of news media will also aid tremendously so you can know more about access and agendas.

"Now, they don't appear to even try to get it right. They don't even know how to provide the basics. They apparently don't know how to do any kind of minimal research, they ignore the obvious."

Yes ... journalism is dead.
Not just investigative journalism ... even basic journalism seems to have died a premature death.

Sad but true.
That's probably one reason why many people are turning to blogs for their news - there is more intelligent analysis there. Sometimes :-)

Pete #2