1440 Cannibal Media

Somewhere along the way, perhaps it was when people started measuring the impact of a news story by the number of internet hits it got, the media started reporting on itself.
I call it the cannibal media.
I suppose it was a natural progression. For years and years what sold newspapers was gossip about celebrities. From Liz Taylor to Paris Hilton delectable scandal kept the dailies fresh. And the tabloids owe their very existence to delicious nuggets of gossip.
Then came Twitter. And now folks who would have been just a passing bonbon in the public eye can tweet themselves into any news cycle by twitting some outlandish comment on public events.
Twitter has become the medium for the narcissistic press release.
And if it’s not being nobly pressed into service to energize a Mideast protest for democracy, it’s being abused by soon-to-be has been political hopefuls to buoy up their popularity and briefly tick up slow news days.
About the same time, news folks themselves became celebrities. And they started twitting, and being twits and doing bizarre things for the cameras—crying, bullying, shouting—and the news media started reporting on them.
And the cannibal frenzy began in earnest.
It’s interesting to note that at the height of his popularity, only 251,000 people watched Keith Olbermann nightly. Glenn Beck has 377,000 viewers on a good night. Slightly more than 1% of the population.
A mere mouthful. And yet an eight-course meal’s worth of total news coverage. The media cannibalizes it’s extremes every day. Like a person with an ulcer and a predilection for chili.
The wails of pain get them noticed.
Let’s report on the real news. Not the reporters’ take on the twisted purveyors of the news.
Remember—you are what you eat.
America, ya gotta love it.