When the Media Just Sucks

There have been several instances where I've had to talk to people who have a personal vandetta against the media. The first time I came across personally in the line of duty was when the county prosecutor in one of my coverage areas told me how much the media makes things worse. I was speaking to him about bomb threats at the high school and he said he blames the media for making this people "glorious."

Well, I understand his frustration, especially when I see Larry King is going to do a big interview thing with Paris Hilton. Paris Hilton has been getting so much media coverage over this whole jail thing and as a reporter, I can't even being to tell you how angry this makes me.

People are dying in Darfur. People are dying in Iraq. The American people barely know anything about any of the presidential candidates for 08. People complain about the obesity crisis in children and blame food companies when the real culprits are parents who let their children play video games and watch TV all day. And we're spending all our time watching coverage of Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith.

There's a part of us, as Americans, that want to see the stars fall. We want to see bad things happen to them and hear about their failures, their head-shaving jounreys and jail time. We want proof that they are human. I think the danger here is that we spend too much time obsessing about them. Even I'm obsessing about it because it irritates me so much.

And the fact that Paris's crying fits of hysteria every night got her out of jail just absolutely infuriates me. Who does she think she is? You don't get star treatment. And don't tell me you're not giving her star treatment. She is. And you are. And it's flat out WRONG.

That's my soap box. But seriously, folks, this is the problem with the media. We latch onto stories that we know people will obsess about because that is how we get the ratings. That's how we get the readers. That's how we make the money.

The goal of media is to make money. Period. This is part of the reason I'm getting out and quitting my job and going into seminary. I want to do somethign that will make a difference, not something that will just make a company money. I want to tell someone's story and create awareness about issues. I don't feel like I'm doing that here at my weekly. I do sometimes, but mostly not. Mostly I just cover meetings and write stories dependant on meetings.

It irritates me that this is what the media has become. We have become muckrackers and we have lost sight of the point of jouralism. We have lost sight of the purpose of journalism: to inform. News is what the people want and need to know. Not what the media thinks will just make money.