Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Give me dirty laundry

The electronic media is in a real hitting slump lately.

First, after trying, convicting, pillorying, flaying and executing John Mark Karr on TV for the alleged murder of JonBenet Ramsey, the accursed Colorado officials had the temerity to not even charge the guy. Simply because they had no evidence.

TV was in a non-stop feeding frenzy for about a week from the time the poor guy was discovered in Thailand. They even covered him on the airplanes from Thailand to the U.S. and from California to Colorado. 'Flying first class? Shame! Shame!' Some of the all-news channels turned into all Karr channels. It ran over and over and over 24 hours a day for days and days. No other news was allowed to intrude. Can't get enough of a juicy murder and it's equally juicy outcome.

No time for facts, we've got the killer, TV shouted. Finally! We solved the murder of at least one white female.

Sorry, TV. Wrong psycho. Made you folks with the microphones look awfully silly again.

Then, TV ramped up the coverage of deadly Hurricane Ernesto, which was bound to wipe South Florida right off the globe. Hour after hour after tense, serious hour of coverage of this deadly storm. Maps, charts, diagrams. A projected path that estimated it could wipe out about a half of the eastern U.S. It came ashore yesterday with rain and 43-mile-per-hour winds. A good storm, sure. A killer?

The folks on location at the Weather Channel looked positively crushed that the storm was so pitiful. (Still can't figure out why they have to have a reporter stand out in the rain in Miami to prove to viewers that it's raining in Miami. We won't believe it if we don't see a wet weatherman?)

All in all a couple real good weeks for the TV folks.

Keep it up. We need scandal. Scares. Murder. Death & destruction. All the stuff you're so good at ....

And so it goes.

3 comments:

Mother Jones RN said...

The most entertaining thing on TV these days is watching TV journalists make fools of themselves. Well put, Ol Guy.

The Squire said...

I think Jim Cantore just likes standing out in hurricanes.

Ol' Guy said...

As of this afternoon, the Weather Channel had pretty much abandoned poor depressing depression Ernesto and taken up the cause of 'Dangerous Hurricane John' which is threatening the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Any major crisis in a storm, huh?