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What is the line between "news" that needs and should be reported and news that is simply not worthy and who decides this? Here are some simple facts that cannot be disputed.
- News is business and like any business it is the bottom line that the owners/stock holders are looking at.
- There is now, with 24/7 news a huge competition between the media to be first, and exclusive.
- There is a definite bias on issues depending on what you watch and read.
- The line between news and entertainment is very blurred.
- The rise in the "blog world" has created distrust with the media.
- Most people feel over "newsed".
I am certain there are others that could also be agreed upon, but the recent episode with the Quran burning is a perfect example of news that is not news being catapulted onto the international stage. The only news from this event is the huge outcry from reporting it in the first place; it might just as well be called created news. After all, if one simply drove around the country looking for bizarre behavior something could be found equal to the book burning on any given day, or created. There are some highly creditable journalist in both print and visual media but many times these same people fall prey to the book burning episode. So, the question to ask is when should events be classified as "non news" and ignored by the mainstream media? Is profit so much apart of news that there is no way to separate the two? I have always felt that the best regulation of a profession comes from the inside, in that true professionals do not want "hacks" in their business. The problem may return immediately to the board room where profits are topic number one.
There are sources that try and clarify what comes down the pike in this media barrage, factcheck.org and media matters are two that come to mind but if they are lost in the shuffle of the giants, the average reader/viewer is not going to get the information. Certainly the person reading or viewing has some responsibility for making an attempt to determine what is real and what is not but with the constant "noise" and the attention span of the average person, for many it is just not going to happen. Is it the old saw of, "you can lead a horse to water------"? Perhaps we need to have journalistic awards on the same level as Hollywood, because chances are people will much more quickly identify who won an Oscar than they will who won a journalism prize.
