Friday, September 14, 2012

All the News That’s Fit to Digitize


Well, first let me apologize for the lateness of the following post I was unaware I had not actually posted it until I logged on to write up something else, so without further ado my class journal.

All the News That’s Fit to Digitize

Over the course of two classes we discussed the news and protected/forbidden speech. I try to keep my two classes separate but the topics blended so well they fell on top of one another, so I’m going to end up talking about both here. We talked about how on occasion the news goes from being news and becoming info porn. Why do 24 hour news agencies keep repeating the same story over and over all day? Also, why do 24 hour news agencies cover the same story that every other news channel covers? Part of it is ratings, part of it is corporate ownership that is forcing its own agenda on the viewers.

Let’s be honest there are channels out there that are openly biased as either conservative or liberal, which in and of itself is not a bad thing. After class I was thinking about how the news channels used to be, back when they first started. Does anyone else remember a time when CNN had a two hour block dedicated every afternoon to news from around the world? As Nathan pointed out it’s now down to 80 seconds.
We also talked about how the news reacts to something horrible. Since the class took place on September 11th we talked about the Twin Towers. I remember it was two weeks where every channel played news. Cartoon Network was the first channel to stop showing news, and it took roughly two weeks. I get that there is a need to report the news and some people just needed time away from work. Especially if they were from New York and a lot of network headquarters are in New York. I was in Ohio when it happened and it messed me up for a while, so I can only guess what it did to someone who’s view from their window changed by this. But Cartoon Network was news for two weeks, and they’re from Atlanta, where like Ohio, I doubt the felt the blow as hard as New Yorkers.

Did you know there was a teachers strike in Chicago? I had no idea. I had not seen anything about it on the news or any of the websites I check for information. I have friends in Chicago, which is why I’ve known about other things going on in Chicago, during the Occupy rally there was a riot, things caught fire. A friend of mine was posting online what she was watching on TV, Dateline was covering the riots in Chicago, in Dayton it was a reality TV show. You’d think a riot where teargas is throw, Molotov’s are hurled, and cars are flipped would be national news. And it was, sort of, they had national news reporters covering it in Chicago.

With the Primaries rolling out around us we spoke on the politics of news footage, how that’s all the news talked about. We talked about how politicians were flat out lying, and there were plenty on both sides. Though there were two who stood out for their polar opposite approach to the truth. I’m not naming names because this isn’t that kind of blog. But it did raise the question of how politicians can get away with lying about this sort of thing in TV spots, ads, and the speeches they make at conventions.

Which raises the question of what is free speech and what are we allowed to say and what aren’t we. What defines something as a lie or slander? What protects free speech? Mostly this comes down to public opinion. Which is scary and terrifying. Free speech was a tricky subject, if someone stands on a street corner and screams in support of 9/11 he will be arrested. To be fair he should betaken in to custody for his own protection because he is about to be murdered.

It’s like the West Burrow Baptist Church, who I hate. I don’t like their methods or their timing, but I would never say they shouldn’t be allowed to make their point or have their say. Of course at this point so much money has been donated to various gay, lesbian, military, religious, and so many other groups they protest I’m starting to wonder if they weren’t just a huge con devised by fund raising groups. There are a lot of things I’d like to say about the WBBC but I have been advised by my crack legal team to follow the example set forth by Penn and Teller and avoid the law suit by simply calling them ass holes and moving on, because anything else is probably liable. (A from of speech not protected by the first amendment.)

This is a lot longer than I initially anticipated so in conclusion: To Mike Diana, wherever you are….Damn dude, that sucked. I hope it works out somehow.

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