The Daily News

     In his article "All I Know is what I Read in the Papers," Chuck Klosterman talks about all the reasons people claim they hate the media. Klosterman feels people have a right to hate the media, but most people hate it for the wrong reasons. He explains a little bit about how the media machine really works and how most things come down to deadlines and timing. By doing so he gives some examples of what would make very good reasons to hate the media. I, however, have another, THE NEWS!
     Last week in class we watched an episode of the NBC Nightly News. I found that the news has really become about 20 minutes of useless info that interests a small minority of the people who are reached by it. Many of the stories covered were just curiosity pieces with no real impact on peoples lives. One of the most covered stories was the Powerball Jackpot. Although interesting, outside the one or two people in the country who would win, that story provided no real useful information to anyone and it was not going to impact their lives outside the few who went out and threw away money on tickets because of the publicity the jackpot was receiving. Another story was about Obama and Romney having dinner at the White House. What real value or impact did that news have for the average person watching the news?
     The worst story I saw was the story about the Mars Rover discovering something on Mars. They teased that it could be something big that would find it's way into the history books. They spent time speculating on what the find could be and questioning consultants, all the while having no clue what was found because NASA wasn't releasing the findings until the next week. This is a great example of a curiosity piece used as filler.
     The only story I saw that most people needed to know due to it's potential impact on them or their loved ones was the story on Medicare. The story was covered at the beginning of the broadcast. It concerned pending legislation to raise the age of qualification for Medicare benefits. The topic seemed well researched and presented to the public. After that though it was mostly filler. And that's why I hate the media, wasting my time with so-called news that has no real impact on my life. The majority of news stories are just curiosities that I don't need to know.