News Values

[poliphilo]

Now we're being told that the Brazilian man the police shot in Stockwell wasn't wearing a puffa jacket and didn't vault over the ticket barrier to escape.

This is the problem with our rolling 24 hour news services: reporters are so hungry for product they'll accept and process anything that comes their way- conjecture, rumour, misinformation, lies- and the obligation to speak to camera every fifteen minutes means that they don't have time to go check their "facts". More news means worse news.

Comments

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

oh oh thank you for saying that. I've noticed since CNN became a staple that the news tends to be - shall we say, less 'accurate'? Or barring that, more little tiny factoids that don't need to be told find their way into the news.

Oh...I guess you said that above - the obligation to speak to camera every fifteen minutes means that they don't have time to go check their "facts"

Here on the local news, the last two nights I've heard "In a story aired EXCLUSIVELY on Channel 5" and "Because of facts heard ONLY on Channel 9"..in connection to a news story about a woman who was killed by her boyfriend.

I swear. I've gotten cable taken out. My next step might be to only use the television for DVDS and VCR tapes.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I watch a lot of news. Some channels are better than others. Channel 4 has an hour long news programme at 7.00 which treats subjects with a bit of depth, but I'm very disillusioned with the BBC.