Semper Fidelis
Posted on 10/27/2010 6:57:25 AM PDT by Michael van der Galien
We bash the MSM a lot here at NewsReal, and for good reason.
The legacy media clings to many now-debunked myths of their own importance. The average person still thinks All the President’s Men is a documentary, that Walter Cronkite convinced LBJ that he’d lost support among middle Americans for the Vietnam War, and that Edward R. Murrow brought down Senator McCarthy.
None of which is true.
However, I just stumbled upon this extremely dark-humored (self) parody, produced by the local newscasters at Dallas FOX 4. This video mocks the MSM’s slightly clueless, awkward embrace of social media trends — which has more to do with them looking “cool” (that is, like dorks) than with truly communicating with their (shrinking) audiences.
The spoof broadcast was created for their fellow journalists, not for public consumption, but appropriately, given its very subject matter, it is going (slowly) viral.
Not everybody in the industry is amused, however. And no matter who you are, not everyone will find video funny, given the subject matter.
Bonus “Yeah, They Went There!” points for the fact that the plot concerns a (completely fictional) shooting in a municipal building in, er, downtown Dallas.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsrealblog.com ...
Thanks.
Semper Fidelis
LOL
ping for later viewing. Thanks!
I don’t get it. Who are those people? What does the drawing of the bear mean?
I’m going to second that. Is that Chris Hansen — Dateline’s child-predator predator? What’s with the hippie with the bear picture?
The newscaster video was actually rather amusing.
SnakeDoc
It’s Chris Hansen, and the bear picture is, of course, the pedobear.
“Pedobear is an internet meme which became popular through the imageboard 4chan.[1] As the name suggests (”pedo” being short for pedophile), it is portrayed as a pedophile bear.[2] The image was incorrectly described as a mascot among pedophiles, and cosplay participants dressed as the character were accused of being pedophiles,[1][3] after the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department issued a warning that Pedobear was a sign of the presence of pedophiles and other people with inappropriate sexual behavior.[4]”
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedobear
you win the intrenets.
Interesting thing about NETWORK the movie - the screenwriter, Paddy Chayefsky - in the early 1970’s television news programs for the first time were RATED - by Nielson and the like - finding out how to get what viewers glued to the tube - then the advertising slots became valuable - then - as the circle goes - the news shows catered more and more to viewers’ tastes - and the advertising slots became worth more and more - what happened to the NEWS? - NOW before this, television news was NOT RATED - as a matter of policy by the FCC for the reason that the tail-wag-dog syndrome would hit the airwaves in a jiff - so this screenwriter, Paddy Chayefsky - realized that in fact television news would turn into a banquet of the bizarre and twisted - a freak factory - but since news shows had to present some surface argument of plausibility that in fact the show was a “news show” - soon, a parasitic dependency set in making news shows dependent on the wildest most way-out political and social trends of the time - if that is what the viewers want to view - to bring those advertising dollars in the door - so - the pattern is represented in the movie NETWORK - prior to its realization approaching anything we have now - so, Mr. Chayefsky invented Howard Beal’s News Program - whose roster includes the fortune teller, the political dissidents - the rabble rousery - and Faye Dunaway’s character - the glass-ceiling-smashing liberated gal - whose pursuit for RATINGS is ruthless - to make an understatement - sets the programming for the Howard Beal Show *that’s her job) - and she stops at nothing - ultimately scheduling Howard Beal’s own firing on camera by the Liberation Group - to stir up ratings - NATCH! - that’s the stop-at-nothing feature to this pattern - and Mr. Chayefsky - when the FCC reversed its prior policy NOT TO ALLOW NEWS SHOWS TO BE RATED - with the result that now news shows could then be rated - Mr. Chayefsky served up the naturally-to-be-expected paradigm - in figurative terms - in this movie - and kind of hit the bull’s eye
Semper Fidelis
Not true. I went to work in the P&G marketing department in 1962, had access to Nielsens...and there were ratings for the news shows at that time.
So far as I know, the news shows were never un-rated.
“I’ll be updating my Facebook status to ‘Scared S*!#less.’”
Har!
OK - that solves that - and thank you - I heard this on the radio - unverified - so I guess a lesson could be that rated news shows - on that trajectory - can turn into something like the Howard Beal Hour - not too unlike what’s on the tube today - thank you for your correction
Any reference to journalist reminds me of a Black and White movie that involved the newspaper business. I would gladly send a few bucks to the PayPal account of anyone who could tell me the name of the movie. As I recall it started Clark Gable but I may be in error.
The portion I recall is when a few of the newspaper employees are together after work. The Cub Reporter asks the seasoned Reporter what is this new position called a "Journalist" and how is it different than a Reporter.
The answer is the detail that I think I recall correctly.
A Reporter reports the news, a Journalist stars in the news.
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