Jan. 24, 2008 entry:

I think most intelligent adults laugh at most of the news that is on today as much of it is so unnecessary and dumbed down and we feel insulted by this.  Also, when network news starts reporting on anything having to do with Britney Spears, unless she dies, they become a laughingstock.

When network news of any kind gives a fifteen second soundbite about an issue and then refers us to their website to get a more complete story, we know they are only trying to bolster their website traffic to sell ads on it.  And we usually do not go to their website and so we get very little news so we stop watching.

Print newspapers are in serious decline and it is not difficult to see why.  I live in Austin, Texas and our local daily is the Austin American Statesman, or Spaceman as we like to call it.  It is full of errors, misspellings, grammar problems and is just awfully put together.  I've often thought a good stand-up comedian or a writer for one of the late night shows like Leno or Letterman would have a field day just reading the headlines, errors, and sentences in the Statesman.

I know that by necessity of financial survival, an editor must pick front page news that will sell readers on buying and continuing to subscribe to their publication.  But often the headline seems not to be anywhere near important or relevant to the community their publication covers.  I've never quite understand this "if it bleeds it leads" mentality, but I often wonder if shock value is rapidly losing its appeal in the face of desire for local hard news and quality world news.

Reporting the actual deaths, injuries and costs of the two military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan seem more important than what Bush or any other politician has to say about those two situations, right?  Yet the front page headlines are often nothing more than public relations pieces of our government or so it seems.

Lately I've been sort of infatuated with news and the media and how it affects our perceptions and beliefs of the world.  I chat with a lot of family and friends about this issue and most of us are in agreement; modern news sucks.