A buddy, Daniel Scherl, runs a wonderful website and podcast on travel. Recently, we had this correspondence about COVID-19 and media coverage:
Scott,I just posted this on Facebook. I tagged 60 Minutes Australia and 60 minutes in it. Fuck those people. I’m tired of not speaking up.Thought you’d enjoy. 🙂Daniel
I’m going to write about something that has been bothering me for a VERY long time in the hopes that ALL of you will see through the lies that are the NEWS MEDIA.The news used to be just the news. A newscaster would read the news to us and that’s all it was. A human being telling us what’s going on, and hopefully they were telling us the facts. Somewhere along the road, likely because of ratings and money, someone decided they needed to add flash transitions, quick cuts, animations and VERY, VERY, VERY over-dramatic music.Then they did an even worse thing, they began editing the stories for the “sound bytes.”Sound bytes are small snippets of someone else talking designed specifically to slant the story from the perspective of the storyteller, in this case, to design and craft the news very much like a movie so it tells the story THEY want to tell, not the ACTUAL TRUTH.They’re still somewhat careful, and they make sure that when they’re “reporting the news,” they carefully slip in words like “could, may, and might.” They use phrases like, “This could mean the worst is yet to come,” “Things may only be on a downturn,” “experts say we might be headed for a global catastrophe.”And they use those words FAST and slip them in so the emphasis is on the more dramatic parts of the sentences. Next time you watch the news, you’ll see it if you pay attention.The problem, beyond the obvious manipulations and speculations, is that it’s simply NOT THE TRUTH.It’s a guess. It’s a speculation CRAFTED and PRESENTED to you as if it’s the truth, and it’s done so because they think YOU ARE STUPID.Yes, YOU.The person reading this post. The news media worldwide thinks you are DUMB, and that’s why they create sensational news read to you by what are essentially actors, instead of actual journalists doing their best to present the impartial information of what is happening in the world.It pains me to say this as a registered Democrat, but this is why Trump is not actually completely wrong when he talks about “fake news.”So why am I writing about this?Because the people at 60 Minutes Australia released a video on YouTube talking about the current Covid-19 pandemic, and it’s like watching a Michael Bay movie:It’s FILLED with quick flash cuts, INCREDIBLY RIDICULOUSLY over-dramatic music, flashes of animal markets, sad people everywhere, and only VERY, VERY, VERY purposely edited quick sound bytes of interviews with people that support only fear-tactic driven sensationalized media to scare you, get RATINGS and make MONEY.They are NOT presenting the news.They are presenting THEATER.They DO NOT trust you. They DO NOT think you are smart. They INSULT YOU every single time they do this, which is the majority of the news today.It’s really this simple:THE NEWS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ENTERTAINMENT.It’s supposed to be a place we go to get information. That’s it.We all know the situation with Covid-19 is difficult at best. We are not stupid. We know it. The whole world is feeling it. This is exactly WHY we need REAL NEWS.We don’t need it presented like a bad student film.We need it presented calmly, clearly, and professionally, without bias (if possible) and certainly without dramatic music, flashy editing, and the selected sound bytes.I challenge 60 Minutes Australia to post the ENTIRE unedited interviews with that doctor, with no music, no editing, no color correction, just the raw interview, on YouTube for us to watch.But they won’t.Even if they say they will… they’ll still edit it because they don’t want you to see the truth.They don’t want you to hear the truth. They don’t trust you to MAKE YOUR OWN JUDGMENT without being LED THERE by music and flashy fear-based editing, because they’re afraid that if they don’t present the Covid story with a lot of panic-driven concern, that YOU won’t do what’s required to help.They believe that if they don’t scare you into behaving, then the virus will spread more rapidly, more people will die, and they will lose all control, which at the end of the day, is what they want: control, money, and power. And ratings.Do you need to stay home right now? YES.Do media companies need to present the truth and trust human beings to do the right thing? YES.This is a time in the world when we NEED to learn to trust one another. We need to have media companies on the side of humanity not the side of sensationalism.I hope 60 Minutes Australia and 60 Minutes are ashamed of how they take advantage of people’s fears and use Hollywood editing tools to create even MORE fear and panic.They almost as big a problem as the virus itself because in many ways they ARE a virus. They’re a media virus spreading the infection of sensationalism when they COULD be spreading the truth.I really don’t want to give their video any more traction so I am not going to link it here, but if you want to see it yourself, go to YouTube and type “Journalist goes undercover at “wet markets”, where the Coronavirus started.”People, we need to demand better.
And the response:
Man, this is a wonderful piece. I hope you get a lot of reaction, and would love it if 60 Minutes responded (or at least mentally noted it). My pet peeve with 60 is that they ask closed questions and set up responses. Just look at how many “yes”/”no” questions they ask to get the answer they need.I’ll offer this possibility in defense of news, since that was my field. Honest, it still is. When you get the lead in your blood, there’s no getting it out, mom always said.In that piece (which you might wanna freelance, dude; happy to talk about that if you want), you correctly state that THE NEWS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ENTERTAINMENT.Fuckin A right.But the truth about news is that it’s never objective. Never has been. In 1897, William Randolph Hearst told a military artist shortly before the Spanish-American tensions, “You furnish the photos, I’ll furnish the war.” Walter Cronkite viewed the world, and the news within it, from a very particular perspective. What he viewed as news was largely his decision, and we abided.
But it wasn’t unbiased. Choosing which quotes to use in a story, for instance — even if they’re accurate and properly paint the subject — will be cut and edited to reflect the story the author prefers. Life is subjective. There’s no way for news to be otherwise.I hesitate to credit Trump with anything, though he’s onto something with the news. But I don’t think it’s fake. I think people are confusing “Fake News” with “Non-News.” Which, in a way, I guess makes it fake. But I think that too obtuse a critique of media, and allows outlets to avoid remedies.Here’s a specific gripe I have with today’s news. I recently took a look at trending stories on Apple News. Here were the headlines:
- ‘Warren Buffett says anyone can achieve success by following this 1 personal rule he lives by’
- ‘Eddie Murphy names the film he feels like an “idiot” for turning down.’
- ’27 Products that are pretty much dream worthy’
- ‘Newly released emails offer more details in timeline of Ukraine aid’
- ‘”Quirkiest of us all: Dallas Cowboys laugh at LB Sean Lee’s unusual gameday drink’
- ‘The wrenching reason Charles Dickens wrote ‘A Christmas Carol’
There’s a through-line in all this: They’re click bait a newspaper would/could never use in the day. Worse: half of the stories could be answered in half a sentence — in the headline, no less — to answer the question, instead of luring the reader into an entire story.For instance, a newspaper headline writer would pen something like “Best friend’s death gave Dickens’ motive for ‘A Christmas Carol.’ Or ‘Eddie Murphy still regrets turning down Ray.’But when journalism went the way of the internet, it went the way of TV, which has always, as you pointed out, blurred the line between entertainment and journalism.And when we began using a metric in journalism like clicks, it quit being journalism. The newspaper division was always the least profitable arm of any media corporation. But Knight-Ridder, Gannett and others were willing to bear the costs for the prestige to overall brand, either in Pulitzers or stories the parent corporation could turn into movies, TV shows, books, etc.The internet demolished all that. When I was still considering sticking around journo, an editor reamed out the staff for being 4 minutes later on a story than the competitor. Minutes, the editor said, were the difference between getting a story read, a customer gained.Time was, it was better late than ever. Today, it’s better never than late. That was enough to send me sailing into retirement.So I hesitate to use Fake News. To this day, I have met only one reporter who made up stories, Jack Kelley. He was drummed out the business in shame.I’ve always seen media outlets as a pizza joint. Go to any “news” site and look at the trending stories, the ones that mirror public taste.You likely won’t find a thoughtful piece on quantum physics on that list. Instead, you’ll see who Kim Kardashian is blowing. Like a pizza joint, if you ordered pepperoni and they gave you sardines, you’re done with that joint. Economic Darwinism dictates you give customers what they want, regardless of taste, or you file Chapter 11. And it’s rotted media from the inside out til the husk isn’t recognizable.Your last graph nails it. Demand better.Hopefully life will return to normal soon. Again, terrific piece, man. Hope it resonates the way it should.bowles
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