VERY proud of Social Outreach Seattle (SOSea) Vice President and Publisher at The Seattle Lesbian Sarah Toce for having this opinion piece published by The Huffington Post. While there certainly is room for news that is entertainment based, the reality is it isnt breaking news at all. The importance of breaking news has been diminished over the years as 24 hour news networks and bloggers that do not hold a shred of journalistic integrity think that Justin Biebers DUI and arrest is something to interrupt interviews over and say, Breaking news .... Think about the major events over your lifetime. For some, it might the assassination of President Kennedy. That was breaking news. For others it might have been when the Berlin Wall fell or when the space shuttle Challenger exploded after its launch. For those born in the 90s breaking news was September 11, 2001. Local news might report on accidents and severe weather, like when the news helicopter crashed near the Space Needle or when it snowed and a bus nearly fell off the freeway. Both could be seen as breaking news items for sure. Breaking news should, or rather, it used to be reserved for news that was meant to inform people about a national tragedy, threat to public safety, the death of a political figure or national treasure, etc. I share Sarahs sentiments about breaking news just as I too ask myself how could it be that Kim Kardashian trumps news about the economy, elections, crime, etc. I think a simple and obvious answer is that news stations, networks, and publications have switched to entertainment news territory in efforts to make more money. It is one thing to go to People or EntertainmentWeekly to get news about such topics. It is another thing completely to watch NBC Nightly News or read the Seattle Times looking for that same type of news. I respect and understand why entertainment news is valuable. It makes people happy, it is, for better lack of a word, entertaining after all. But it is not breaking news that Lady Gaga (or anyone for that matter) has sold a record, wrote a book, or did anything -- unless they died, are a threat to public safety, announced war, etc. There is a balance that can happen. Buzzfeed and Huffington Post are great at it. In broadcast, the nightly news on major networks is still pretty good at reporting straight forward news to inform the public. In print, the Seattle Times and others correctly print the newspapers in sections that make sense. Even at Seattle Gay News we have Section 2 designated for Arts & Entertainment because a story about Jinx Monsoon or any local entertainer does not trump the announcement that marriage equality has come to another US state or that major legislation has been introduced that would make the lives of LGBT people in a certain country or state or city improve. (if you read into that as my attempt to passive aggressively diss local entertainers you are a fool. I write tons of copy, and have for five years now, about the wonderful entertainers in Seattle. I am simply proving the point that that type of copy is reserved for entertainment and arts sections of newspapers). Anyway, not to beat a dead horse, because there are certainly more interesting things to read than my post about why I think this or that, but seriously the only way this will change is if people refuse to be fed news that is not breaking news, as breaking news. Write or call the new stations, publications, etc., doing this and complain. Take your ad dollars elsewhere. Stop tuning in or reading. Believe me, it will make a difference. huffingtonpost/sarah-toce/media-and-breaking-news_b_5215505.html
Posted on: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 03:06:23 +0000
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