Observations on Media

One of the best changes I’ve made in my life over the last couple of years was to cancel my cable subscription when I moved in with Marie. The few shows I do watch consistently (The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, 30 Rock, Mad Men, The Office, etc.) are easily found online and usually are free. There’s no reason for me to pay for cable and I never have to channel surf or watch inane programs. It’s great.

When I visit my family or come home for holidays, I watch TV and am astounded by it, particularly the news. I’m aware that corporate news media is in flux and has not been able to compensate to a client base that is moving online, but traditional journalism does still have an important role to play in society and the education of people. What I see, however, makes me downright sad.

I’m well aware of Fox News’ disgraceful depiction of news and there are enough people harping on that so I’ll spare you of my distaste for Glenn Beck (for now). What I want, however, is a commitment by reputable news sources to report on real news and forget the tabloids. Many sources that I follow (among them The Daily Show, which doesn’t really call itself journalism or news, and The Huffington Post) give more time and energy to Tiger Woods and Kanye West being a jerk than is necessary. CNN’s top stories by views are almost always tabloid-esque as well.

I don’t claim to know anything about anything, really, but I do know that people are grossly under-informed about important issues and corporate news media are more concerned with profits, ratings, and entertainment than increasing public knowledge about things that people should know about–things that matter.

Once again, season 5 of The Wire knows best. There, I had to stick that in there somewhere.