The former CBS News Anchor had this to say in the HuffPo yesterday:
There’s always the question, is the audience chasing the news or the news chasing an audience? I have nothing against the royals or their wedding. It is a legitimate news story, a big event for one of America’s most stalwart allies. We have had a lot of bad news lately, and if you are someone who finds this diversion interesting and exciting, then I think that’s great.
What bothers me is the hypocrisy. The idea that we can’t afford to throw resources at an important foreign story, but can afford to spend this kind of money on a story like the royal wedding is just plain wrong. The idea that we can’t break into regularly-scheduled programming for an address by the president is wrong as well. When the topic was the “Birther Story” (better referred from here on out by the first letters of those two words), the networks jumped right in.
He’s right. It’s almost as hypocritical as the media choosing to recklessly pursue a non-story criticizing the president’s National Guard service based on fake documents easily replicated in Microsoft Word…..
Ah, but I thought that the news media largely survived by advertising revenue. Presumably more folks, especially the kind who might go out and buy something based on a TV ad, were tuned in to the royal wedding than would ever (say) tune in to a foreign policy press conference.
In the same way, I expect that more folks would watch Super Bowl halftime ads if "wardrobe malfunctions" happened on a regular basis.
Besides, the way things are going, this may be the last time that the news media reports on any wedding, unless the couple is same-gender. Enjoy it while you can.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRemember those fake National Guard documents were "fake but true".
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOr those same networks couldn't devote even a single reporter to cover the birther controversy prior to the election.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHowever investigating who Trig's true mother is, that's another story.
For Rather, going to HDNet means never having to say he's sorry.
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