Weekend Assignment: Scandalized
Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Thursday, December 10, 2009
The press and the public always seem to be obsessed with one scandal or another, from Tiger Woods to Balloon Boy. Do you eagerly follow such stories, try to avoid them, or something in between? Does the identity of the celebrity (or would-be celebrity) affect how interested you are?
This would assume I had time to do that. I click and read some stories but honestly, unless a celebrity does something beyond the pale I'm not terribly interested. If I follow, it's mainly out of interest to see how the various outlets cover a particular story. Boring, I know.
Extra Credit: Have you ever purchased a supermarket tabloid?
Back when The Weekly World News was still in circulation I did purchase the odd (pun intended) issue or two. It was mainly for the laughs. Back when I was writing a weekly humor column I often bought that particular tabloid as it was great fodder. But then, the WWN was never your typical font of celebrity gossip, unless it involved space aliens and Elvis.
I apologize for the short, late entry. I've got lots on my virtual plate this week.
Filed under: Weekend Assignment
Filed under: Weekend Assignment
Comments are closed
Karen Funk Blocher said:
The idea of comparing the coverage reminds me of an assignment I did in journalism school lo these many years ago, back when I was majoring in tv-radio. We were to compare two or three of the network evening newscasts for a given night, so see what was in, what was out and where the emphasis was. John Chancellor led off that night was the following: "Alleged Watergate conspirators X,Y, and Z were indicted today on:" followed by a list. CBS and ABC didn't mention that particular story. (This was 1975 or 1976, long after Nixon resigned.) I never found out whether NBC broke the story and the others jumped in later, or whether the others considered Watergate old hat by then and weren't that interested.
Nowadays, of course, NBC would break it on MSNBC, and everyone else would have the story in some form five minutes later.
Date: 12/14/2009 11:57:27 PM
Date: 12/14/2009 11:57:27 PM
Karen Funk Blocher said:
The idea of comparing the coverage reminds me of an assignment I did in journalism school lo these many years ago, back when I was majoring in tv-radio. We were to compare two or three of the network evening newscasts for a given night, so see what was in, what was out and where the emphasis was. John Chancellor led off that night was the following: "Alleged Watergate conspirators X,Y, and Z were indicted today on:" followed by a list. CBS and ABC didn't mention that particular story. (This was 1975 or 1976, long after Nixon resigned.) I never found out whether NBC broke the story and the others jumped in later, or whether the others considered Watergate old hat by then and weren't that interested.
Nowadays, of course, NBC would break it on MSNBC, and everyone else would have the story in some form five minutes later.
Date: 12/14/2009 11:57:27 PM
Date: 12/14/2009 11:57:27 PM
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