Friday Morning Thoughts

Before I get into anything related to my wedding issues, I just wanted to voice some opinions on some recent happenings in the news.

First of all, my thoughts go out to all those affected by the Ft. Hood shootings yesterday as well as the Orlando office shooting today. This brings up a couple things that I feel very strongly about, and I think the media reaction to these things is going to force me to really change my daily ritual. You see, I love news. Actually, I love information. My fiancee often makes fun of me for my nerdiness, but I can't stand not knowing things. I don't care if the information is important or not, if there's a topic that interests me, I'll go to great lengths to learn as much as I can about it; and then explain it to everyone I know in great and rambling detail (I think it's that last part that drives my fiancee crazy). I read at least one newspaper per day. I read news magazines at least once a month. I even love Snapple bottle caps; but who doesn't? How else would you know that a ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber? Or that porcupines float? Or that the average woman consumes 6 lbs of lipstick in her lifetime? My fiancee thinks these are ridiculous, but some of them are very useful. For example, Snapple taught me that chewing gum while peeling onions keeps your eyes from watering (it works). I now know that if I want to visit the town of Big Ugly I need to go to W. Virginia. And I know that if someone tells me they'll "be there in a jiffy" it actually means they'll be there in 1/100th of a second. Some Snapple facts will actually be useful to our wedding planning. For example, mosquitoes are attracted to people who have just eaten bananas, so no bananas at the wedding reception, which is outside on the beach. And if I need to drop a pound or two before the ceremony I know that chewing gum burns 20 calories an hour. Anyway, I could go on all day with Snapple facts, but I'll save that for another post. Two more of my information sources are the internet and CNN, and this is where my frustration lies.

Since the inception of the internet users have (or should have) understood that the information presented online was not always factual, correct, unbiased or timely. I have always viewed information online with a little hesitation because I know that. TV, however, has been held to higher standards of journalistic integrity; at least until lately. I remember watching the nightly news with my parents all the time when I was younger. It was a great source of information and was generally unbiased reporting of the days events. Then news expanded into the cable markets. CNN Headline News and FOX News reported the news 24 hours a day. Yes, there was some bias, but for the most part viewers (myself included) felt like they were getting a good amount of actual news that was factual, correct, somewhat unbiased and timely. Then the internet started to gain in popularity. With the surge in the number of people who now own PDA's and smartphones, news became available with the touch of a button. "Scooping" (getting a story out first to gain readers or viewers) has always been important in journalism because it leads to ratings, which lead to advertising dollars. When people started using the internet as their main source of information, cable news stations realized they had to do something to pull those viewers back.

Cable news stations started carrying dramatized shows and specialized programs that focused on glamorizing the stories behind current events. Instead of the news the focus turned to the personalities. Shows run by Nancy Grace, Jane Velazquez Mitchell, Wolf Blitzer, and Shepard Smith became increasingly popular. Now I'm not saying that these people aren't great at what they do; I'm just saying that they aren't reporting the news. They are personalities put in place to sex up current event stories to draw in viewers. The platforms for the cable news stations (FOX, CNN) changed from 24 hour news reporting to small segments of news reporting sandwiched in between these glamorized gossip talk shows hosted by vitriol-spewing talking heads. And the little reporting of the news they did do is gone. There is no recognizable journalistic reporting on any of these shows anymore. The priorities of the news should be that it is factual, correct, unbiased and timely. Cable news stations are so focused on competing to stay profitable that it's no longer important to actually report the facts of a story. The only thing that's important is to throw as much unsubstantiated information to the public so the network can claim "first."

Yesterday was my breaking point with this. As the tragedy at Ft. Hood unfolded I was in the break room at my office and CNN Headline News was on. They reported that 3 men of Islamic background had opened fire with automatic weapons, killing 15 and wounding 31, one shooter was dead, 2 others were in custody. Within minutes it was 12 dead, 31 wounded, just one shooter. Then another reporter called in to say that no, it was 2 shooters, and one was dead, one was in custody. Then hours after the news emerged that it was one shooter, who was still alive, 13 dead, 30 wounded.

As an aside, what's with random mass shootings? Why kill a bunch of innocent people who have nothing to do with your current situation. This is the most selfish, arrogant, evil act you can carry out as a human being, and I hope every one of these murderers rots in hell. If your life is so bad, fine; go kill yourself. Just don't take it out on innocent people. And if you're going on some sort of ideological rampage, don't be a pussy and kill yourself too. Take it like a man. If you believe in something so much that you have to kill a bunch of people to make your point, then stay alive so you can continue to make your point in court. And then you can make your point to your cell mate, who is your new husband. Of course you'll be the bitch because you'll fold without weapons, the element of surprise, and a bunch of unsuspecting targets. That's why these people all kill themselves; they're not strong enough to go to prison and they don't believe in what they're striking out for enough to want to live to defend their actions. Weak.

Anyway, back to the news. What happened to getting all of the facts before reporting anything? I understand that, in the interest of public safety, information about a mass shooting with casualties should be relayed to the public. My problem is that the facts about the case weren't even being checked as they were coming in. Information was being changed almost minute by minute. That's not representative of the story evolving; that's representative of a news team that's been told to provide information immediately, and check the validity of it later.

And my favorite part of the whole thing; the iReporter. Seriously, WTF. I get what networks are trying to do; get Average Joe's take on the story while showing images from the point of origin of the story. But c'mon; these are becoming a bigger and bigger part of the news report, which is absolutely ludicrous and completely insulting to anyone who wants to get actual news. We have news anchors and news staffs for a REASON. They are trained (most of them for many years at big expensive universities) to gather, check, and report the news. Last time I checked finding Waldo in every scene of the Where's Waldo book Aunt Nancy gave him for Christmas last year doesn't make one tooth Timmy from the end of the cul-de-sac a news reporter. Actually, maybe they're on to something. I think I might have to try this. If you want to work for an embedded software company, just email me. You can be an "iManager." You just basically come in to the office 3 days of the week, sit in my chair, log into all my programs, and basically just do what you think my job would be. If you get it wrong, don't worry, you're not a trained professional so it's OK! If you get it right, then my company will take all the credit. Win for us, fun for you! We don't have to stop there either. We could have iSurgeons, normal people who just jump into the middle of a surgery and start slicing and dicing with absolutely no medical training. Or how about iCops, just head down to the police station, grab a gun, hop in a car and go bust whomever you want! And when you get arrested for malpractice or carrying a weapon without a license, you can just hire an iLawyer, who has no formal training but has seen, "just like, every episode of Law & Order, especially SVU and Criminal Intent." Sounds ridiculous doesn't it? Then why do we accept it from our news sources?!?!?!?

It has become more important to be first then to be correct, and for that reason, I am officially boycotting all cable news programs from this point on.

Unless there's a car chase on. Everyone loves a good car chase.