Covering the Coverage

Ana Marie Cox, Washington Correspondent for GQ Magazine, said on CNN's Reliable Sources that the media was "finally learning some lessons" in the wake of the Colorado theater shootings. This was after host Howard Kurtz had suggested most (but not all) of the coverage had been responsible, even though the media still hemorrhaged with speculation (my words, not his).

Ms Cox isn't that old, but she isn't young enough to be excused for her Pollyanna optimism. The same cycle is repeated every time this happens: breaking news, frenzied reporting (and speculation), suspect identified, victims and bystanders interviewed, analysis of the events, then analysis of the coverage. Usually it takes longer than 3 days, but this series of events unfolded quickly.[1]

Until there is no more incentive for presenting the news than presenting the news, this will not change. It will only worsen. Events like these affect sponsors, ad revenue, and careers. They are growth opportunities as much as news stories.

And that is the only lesson anyone in the media learned from this event.

Don't believe me? Tune it Nancy Grace on CNN for a week. If you removed the speculation (and requisite indignation), you'd have about 5 minutes of real information, and most of that would be repeated from nights before.

[1]
Of course, once the victims and witnesses and authorities have been mined for all the information they're willing to give out, and the speculation is beginning to repeat itself, there's not much let to talk about.


Started: 2012-07-22