Tuesday, January 31st, 2006...5:44 am
My God, They Attacked a Journalist Anchorman!
Okay, I have to admit that I ruthlessly stole this from Wactivist. Mr. T in AZ, proprietor of that site, was a bit taken aback by how much attention was given by television networks to the story of Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt and their injuries in Iraq. Why, he asks, is so much attention getting paid to the injuries of these two, when there are tens of thousands of troops running the same risks every day?
Why indeed. It seems like they care more about this guy Woodruff because he’s on television just like they are.
Heck, other reporters are running risks too. Take Jill Carroll of the Christian Science Monitor; she’s a hostage. I shudder to think about what sort of ordeals she’s going through right now. She’s only a print journalist, though. So, I haven’t seen nearly the amount of attention paid to her. I suppose that if she were a blonde newlywed, Rita Cosby would do a full hour on her.
This calls to mind a problem I have with the television news media. They seem to enjoy talking about each other and to each other. How many times have you watched a program on CNN, MSNBC or Fox (we have a lot of Fox viewers who read this…) and have seen them do interviews that amount to nothing more than teases of their other programs? Even when they interview print journalists, they tend to be the ones that have managed to get contracts to appear on their other programs.
When I attended the last Democratic convention, our delegation was near CNN’s booth. CNN bragged that they were on the floor of the convention, but they may as well have stayed in Washington. I watched as they mostly interviewed CNN personalities. Occasionally, they would interview a politician. Nine times out of ten, it was a member of congress that they could interview back in DC any time they wanted. Imagine, a room with thousands of people from around the country, but to find out the “pulse of the nation,” they talked to their friends.
Well, one thing I can say about ABC News: apparently, Woodruff and Vogt managed to survive the attack because they had adequate body armor. Unlike our troops, Woodruff and Vogt had an employer that cared enough to spend some money to keep them a little bit safer.
Comments are closed.