Media: My question to you

OK, RJS, I'll grant you that one: no, they need not fixate. But the whole thing's a hoax so they can get on a reality show. We've given them one. They'll make money on this and get just what they wanted. Bury the story.

It's not like coverage on the Louisiana judge has been silent. It was one of the front-page stories on CNN.com for a couple of days. Saw something where one of the late-night comics had a good line -- think about the poor children of the mixed-race union, one could grow up to be President.

At least he didn't try to give Biblical reasons for denying the marriage, which might have happened 30 or 40 years ago.

And yes, balloon boy (only about 50 miles from me) gets a silly huge amount of coverage. Not like that's a new phenomenon. Remember the baby in the well (early 80s)? More recently, the nonstop coverage on Nancy Grace et al. if any attractive woman goes missing or is mysteriously murdered.

Sadly, I think they are giving us what interests us. If Larry King had done a show with this judge or the interracial couple instead of the balloon family, I bet the ratings would have been much lower. So maybe the question shouldn't be about the media, but about why we get fascinated by such stories.

As AHH pointed out, there has been coverage of that distrubing Louisiana judge situation.

I think the balloon situation is getting so much coverage because people got emotionally involved with the story at the beginning- as they watched the "drama" unfold over the Colorado sky. The the networks know they have the attention of people when they discuss these new twists, which means higher ratings.

People are not as emotionally attached to the Lousiana situation.

It's one thing to cover something; it's quite another to give it front row billing the way our media can do when they want to. Yes, they covered it but they lot it drop and didn't focus in on it the way it deserved. It was, to quote another, a "teachable moment" (missed).

Perhaps, rather than depending on the media, this is a case in which the church needs to take responsibility for bringing it to the attention of people.

Is racism old news? I wonder. The balloon story is too sensational to let it pass. But I hardly ever try to understand the media. Ratings=money, that what motivates them.

Because no one likes to be made to look foolish.

There are many reasons, some nefarious, some mundane. Dan @ 15 is right that, in a visual medium, stories with easy-to-cut-to video will be privileged. But there is also the TV news hierarchy of people in distress:

very young>young>very old>middle aged
female>male
if adult, parent>nonparent
attractive>unattractive
American>non-American
white*>brown>black
*bonus points for blondes