Ed Norris: Another Reason To Hate The Media
As if you needed another reason to despise the national media yesterday just shed a spotlight on exactly why. The days of responsible news reporting seem almost quaint now. When I was a little boy Walter Cronkite was the man who came into your living room every night and told you what was going on in the world . We trusted him to tell us the truth and keep us informed and he did. It was a different era; there was responsibility and common sense in the news business. The location of Soviet missiles was important not the sex lives of our elected officials. If Cronkite told you something you could take it to the bank.
Now I realize that younger listeners or readers of this blog are snickering and making jokes about how long ago this era was and how irrelevant it is to today. Nothing could be further from the truth, the comparison is extremely relevant as well as important. I feel bad for the generation that has grown up with Internet and cable because exactly what has made the whole world available to you has also taught you to believe absolutely nothing you're told.
It's the byproduct of modern day news reporting and the desire to be first instead of being accurate. The result is the widespread and all too frequent misinformation that is watched on television and read on your computer.
Yesterday was the worst example that I've seen in awhile. Several "credible" news sources reported breaking news that a suspect was in custody for the bombing at the Boston Marathon. Almost immediately other reports came out saying no one was arrested....then more care out saying someone was. It went on and on like that for far too long. It was totally irresponsible and dangerous to spread such poorly sourced information at such a frightening time in American history. They need to strive to be right instead of first.
