EVERYONE loves local news stations. Maybe part of that is from the culture of "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," but who doesn't love the fun banter and painfully forced earnestness of reporting on fluff pieces as if they were apocalyptic calamities? Many of the local news segments seem to be marked with a levity that results from reporting in a sleepy small town. Here, reporters have time to focus more on the fun, local goings-on and leave the contentious national debates for their cable news affiliates. Unfortunately, when the average viewer tunes in to cable news hoping to apprise himself of the daily Washingtonian polemic, he is often greeted by a two hour block of programming completely dedicated to Sarah Palin's most recent gaffe. The news media today seems to thrive on frivolity, the latest verbal slip-up or manufactured controversy forcing substantive debate by the wayside.
The 24 hour news cycle has its pros and cons. We are always connected to significant events and news stories. Sometimes, however, anchors struggle to fill in the time between reporting actual stories. As a result, some political news outlets will air your average harebrained story about how President Obama's latest immaculate display of rhetorical perfection was marred by an ill-timed mispronunciation or slightly gaudy tie.
It's not only the exhaustive schedule of all-day news programming that results in these superfluous displays of reporting. The individuals who run television programming are adept at giving people soft news for the purpose of increasing ratings. Producers and editors would not run these types of stories if there was not a demand for them. But why would Americans want to spend the better part of their leisure time dissecting every painfully specific detail about the bloopers and blunders that befalls our politicians?
The answer seems to be that Americans don't want to be challenged when they seek to catch up on current events. Third-year student Charles Ellen commented, "The intellectual laziness of much of the American media sickens me and calls its legitimacy and utility into question. Not enough Americans go beyond the television and use the internet or other sources to fact-check frivolous news reports." So are Americans intellectually lazy, refusing to challenge themselves with substantive content and preferring to wade through pools of triviality for their news fix? Not entirely, but there is a palpable desire among Americans who get most of their political news from sources like MSNBC, Fox News and CNN to obtain in their news an affirmation of their own beliefs. Most people will normally trend their viewership toward anchors or networks that best reflect their ideologies. Watching any of the above networks for significant periods of time will disabuse anyone of the na
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