Every program’s topics functioned around violence and death. The funniest thing I witnessed was before each commercial break the broadcaster would mention the lead they had gained on serial killer. They made this plug three different times before cutting to a commercial and they never even told the story! They would drop this line hoping for viewers to stay glued to the screen, and they probably did, but with no answers. The main difference between all of these programs isn’t about content, but the tone and direction each story takes. The startling images upset you and the broadcaster tells you why. Fox was conservative, CNN leaned liberal, and the 7 News might as well have been an infotainment show. Each person told me what to think while flashing a big grin. Watching Fox was brutal; I think a liberal watching a Fox news program feels similar to Superman touching kryptonite. You couldn’t even get a coherent story without the broadcasters battling and cutting each other off before they could get a word out. I felt embarrassed watching such awkwardness and lack of journalistic professionalism. But hey we can’t all be as smooth as Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone…
End note: watch the news with a clean slate and construct the story outside of your own mind from all different perspectives. Don’t let the code of fear that broadcasters promote control your view of the world. At the end of the day it’s not how you view the world anyways, it’s how you live in it.
Love the Anchorman reference! On a more serious note though, I like your point about the lead in to commercial with the serial killer stories. While I was watching CNN Newsroom, they did the same exact thing with an image of a burning school bus. They used it to lead into commercials twice and then when they finally got to the story, it was over in thirty seconds and all they said was no one was hurt. However, the audience had been gripped the whole time by the fear that children might have died in the fire.
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