There were a couple of things that I observed this week in the world of journalism that I find it hard to let pass without a comment. <\/p>\n
The first was Jorge Whats-his-name from Univision who demanded to be heard by Donald Trump by interrupting his press conference. As many of you know, I’m not Trump fan, but I’m less a fan of the current state of the media. Jorge from Univision wasn’t asking a question to which he expected an answer. He was making a statement about his personal opinion regarding illegal immigration. He went on other “news” shows and said he had a “right” to ask his question. First of all, there is no “right” to ask a public person a question. I’d like to know where Jorge found that in the Bill of Rights.<\/p>\n
Secondly, as I pointed out, Jorge wasn’t asking a question. He was grandstanding and making himself part of the news cycle. That’s not what real journalists do – they report the facts, the news, not become part of it. Even if he had a valid point, it was lost in the attention whoring for the cameras, and then his misapprehension of what is a “right” compounded by the other “news” sources that made it part of the national discussion on illegal immigration.<\/p>\n
Then there was the horrific murder of two members of a Virginia TV news station. I know how journalists felt about it, you know because it happened to two of their own and committed by another journalist. I feel the same way when a veteran is mistreated in some way. But, in my opinion, the wall-to-wall coverage of the whole thing played right into the hands of the murderer. I’m pretty sure that he wanted to be made famous by the incident and he did it in the most public way that he could, even providing the media with video of his crime and Tweeting his getaway.<\/p>\n
The media claims that whats-his-name was a big fan of ISIS and al Qaeda, especially in the felling of the World trade Center Towers, but, also, other mass murder events, like the one in Charleston earlier this year. His intent was to make his name a household word, to sear the video of his horrific crime into the national memory. The media did their best to help him in that endeavor with minute-by-minute coverage of his terror spree. As late as last night, Azteca TV was still running the video on their news program “Al Extremo” which was included among other similar events from around the world in which criminals attacked news teams while they were broadcasting live in order to magnify their terrorist activities. It just doesn’t happen here, you see.<\/p>\n
I know that “if it bleeds, it leads” in the news world, but, just as they made the goals of that gunman in Charleston to start a race war their own goal, their coverage of this event in Virginia has put a target on the back of every live news-gathering crew in the world by doing exactly what whats-his-name wanted them to do. They made him famous by blasting out his photos, his career, the minutiae of every detail of his life, his manifesto, even his to-do list for the day. Every borderline head case with delusions of grandeur will follow his example. <\/p>\n
The media can keep it’s own head count of the times it will happen around the world, but they’ll never blame themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"