My thousand part series of criticizing TV news coverage continues with installment # 77. In the past I’ve pointed out this obsession with featuring a house fire every day or an emergency plane landing as often as they can on just about every TV newscast across the country but the bizarro world has really kicked in with coverage of the Turkey/Syria earthquake. I’m talking about these reporters who stand next to the piles of rubble and narrate the scene like they’re covering a golf game: “you see them pulling pieces of concrete out piece by piece in hopes of finding more people alive, oh, i have to be quiet now because they think they might be hearing a voice in the debris…and this is going on day and night with hope running out in finding anyone alive at this point..” Besides just pointing at the destruction and featuring people’s misery I don’t understand what service these news people are providing. David Muir sitting on a bucket next to locals who’ve lost everything acting like he’s aware of their pain when I assume he will have very good accommodations somewhere nearby seems unnecessary. Now, I don’t want to appear cynical because it’s not my nature but disasters, natural or man made are gold Jerry gold for TV news and when they happen during a ratings month which February happens to be….MADONE! I’m not saying they shouldn’t cover these stories at all but it very quickly becomes just trafficking in people’s misery for profit. Ten minutes of pointing the camera at horrific suffering and then going to commercials is the dealio, and showing these images over and over again is just for commerce. The reporters aren’t chipping in to help remove piles of building detritus nor are they manning food tents. Nope, they just point to shattered buildings and destroyed lives and act like they’re concerned with an air of “I’m brave just by being here.” The only way all this would be a bit more palatable is if at the end of the newscast the reporter says “all of the revenue we are making from commercials that ran between looking at these horrific images will be donated to helping people in Turkey and Syria.” But all they do in the end is say “their prayers and thoughts go out to the victims.” Yeah, that’s gonna help. Puhleeze.

Gunga, galunga
Garry