Resurrection

I'm days away from quitting my job and starting out on my own as a freelance reporter. As I look forward to unemployment, I'm thinking this abandoned shed of a blog might have been worth more than I gave it credit for.

The problems I had with it were obvious to me after the second post. The first and most glaring problem with a blog like this: redundancy. TV news programs (especially the local ones) break ethical guidelines often because its policy to do so. Of course Fox 9 has an American Idol beat reporter. How could they avoid it? They're just part of a grand-scale umbrella extension of Fox Inc., ran by Rupert Murdoch, the very man most responsible for destroying broadcast news industry.

If there could be a single enemy of public knowledge, it would be Murdoch. If the current news-media v. ownership struggle were compared to a Marvel comic-book, he and his junta (made up of other industry men, various conservative politicians, etc.) would be The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, with Murdoch as Magneto himself. An even more depressing fact: there is no team of X-Men dedicated to maintaining the quality of the public sphere, countering the malicious acts Murdoch and his Evil Mutants.

Another problem with this blog is my ineptitude, unavoidable because:

1. I'm lazy. Plain and simple. There was a six-month span of time a couple years back, during which I edited a school newspaper and was accordingly beholden to the many responsibilities of an editor. It was a great learning experience. I learned that my human inclination, shaped by eons of evolution, guides me away from taking on too much responsibility. I don't dare ponder the possible consequences of ignoring that inclination.

2. I don't have cable or TiVO. This means I have to pick and choose which broadcasts I watch, and catch the rest on internet postings. The result is an incomplete picture of the daily news-scape, which I feel is important picture to have for these postings. A complainer like myself needs to have a perfect idea of the thing he is upset with.

3. Watching local TV news every day is unbelievably depressing: gas prices going up, blacks killing whites, blacks killing blacks, gas prices going up, whites having to rent because they can't afford housing, squirrels water-skiing, etc. Metro news is limited crime reports, and suburban news is limited to self-absorbed babble. After watching this stuff every day for a couple weeks I start getting nausious at around 4:30, just before the evening broadcast begins.

Catering to Ownership: The Idol Beat

During the American Idol season our own Fox 9 news has provided us with weekly in-depth coverage of the show. They also have an Idol-themed website run by Chris Matheson, the entertainment beat reporter.

It's tricked out with killer graphics and a chat room where enthusiastic fans can argue over their favorite contestant. It's also tricked out with a disgusting sploosh into the toilet bowl of sensationalism and sycophancy.

Other local affiliates are silent on Idol. Now that it's in its seventh (or is it eighth? ninth? 41st?) season, the show is far from being newsworthy in any sense and should be beyond even the soiled ethical standards of entertainment reporting, especially here in Minnesota which is nowhere near Hollywood (geographically or egotistically). But I guess entertainment news is pointedly shit, and Matheson's reporting is actually funny if we take it as an intended punch-line to a joke that the E! channel has been telling all these years.

Then there's the matter of incest. Fox 9 news is running weekly updates on a show that's broadcast on their own station and that is a backhand to RTNDA ethical standards. I would like to find out if other Fox affiliates run similar bits on their own news broadcasts. Is KMSP getting more than video clips from Fox headquarters for doing these updates?