On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 4:13 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > But I disagree with the premise that the only events that have major news > value are those that are surprising.
It is not the only barometer, but in this instance "racism exists" is news to nobody. > Mitt > Romney is going to be officially nominated as the Republican candidate for > President of the United States in a few hours - that will be unsurprising, > and has been virtually certain for more than 12 months. Yet it will still be > real, important news. the job of journalists really is not just to tell us > surprising things, it is also to report unsurprising things, but give us > enough background information so that we can make sense of them and form our > own solid judgements. Romney being the nominee is the textbook example of something that is not newsworthy, just as Obama running is also not newsworthy. These things are widely known and understood, they have been for some time, and judgements have long ago been made about both men. The media might as well dedicate several days reporting that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The job of a journalist is to tell us what we need to know. We do not, by any definition, need to be told that which we already know. I know these conventions are a profound statement of democracy, and the roughly 30 nations on the planet without such freedoms must look upon them with envy. But while they might have served a function decades ago, the days are gone when people stood at a podium while others cheered qualified as news. If politicians were pressed to comment on substantive issues, if those in attendance spoke with the authority of the districts they claim to represent, if the media held everyone accountable, if the decisions that needed to be made occurred amidst the speechifying, if the words were followed up by actions, if the promises made were actually kept, and if our votes mattered, then the conventions might have some significance. But the repetitive bloviations of a failed two party system just don't matter. They are not news. They just aren't. -- Kevin M. (RPCV) -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
