Are We Watching Too Much Junk News As a $5,000/year Airline Mechanic Repairs Your Plane?

By

Bobbie L. Washington

I have watched, not in fascination, but with perplexing disbelief over the amount of coverage over the media tagged tale of “Balloon Boy”. This Balloon Boy started off as a nail-biting news lead of a supposed six-year old boy trapped in a saucer type weather balloon sailing across the Colorado sky in an uncontrollable glide. It was breaking news as the major networks went live with the story. There were speculations that something had fallen out of the balloon from an image that was captured on a digital camera. Those who watched began to pray for this child and when the craft finally landed as witnessed by the millions of eyes who were enthralled by this climatic adventure. And in true gripping drama, there was no boy in the balloon and the speculation grew more intense on the whereabouts for this innocent child. Had he actually fallen out? If true, nobody knew where to begin the search for his body. And as scripted for television, the boy was found safe and at home. But wait, there’s more. It was a hoax. And the next level of the news cycle began, but why? Why is this story still having legs after it was revealed to be a hoax? Why is the news giving this legs knowing that it was a publicity stunt?

This was a legitimate story that turned into junk news. What is junk news, you may ask? It is the stuff that obscures real news. It is pointless and mundane. It is the 15 minutes of fame in the pursuit of “at all cost”. It eats into your brain, the sensible common sense portion that asks, “Why are we wasting time on this”? Richard Heene and his wife, Mayumi, are just an example of the junk news cycle. But how did it start? They are just the latest of a trend on how the news media has been forced to play a game of ratings obsession.

The Jon and Kate Gosselin saga is another example of junk news. Why is Kate Gosselin on morning shows like the Today Show or is guest hosting The View to discuss her impending divorce and all of the maudlin details of her failed marriage? A network created a show around her family because she had multiple children. Having a family is now entertainment. The money they offer you is a great incentive to do the program but the parents seem to have abdicated their personal responsibilities by not having a legitimate job. And when they decided to air their personal drama to the public, why must the viewing audience who do not watch this circus be subjected to the impending divorce? It was a cable show so let them be on the cable show and be interviewed by their core audience. Why take u p my time and the news cycle time with your theatrics? It is junk news.

The David Letterman extortion case started off as a legitimate story about a man trying to get $2 million dollars from the late night host. It turned into junk news when the sex angle began to overtake the criminal complaint. Speculation ensued about who, what, when, why of Letterman’s sex life. There were other stories to play but this ate into the news cycle for four days.

But there are news stories out there that are not getting the needed coverage that could be detrimental to your safety. One news story that National Public Radio is covering is on the airline industry and what they are doing in repairing and maintaining their aircrafts. In a news article entitled Crossed Wires: Flaws in Airline Repairs Abroad by David Zwerdling, he discusses what many major airlines are doing to cut cost by having their airplanes serviced by a company in El Salvador. This company, Aeroman, is utilized by such noted airlines like U.S. Airways and Jet Blue. The article goes on to state that the mechanics that repair these planes make around $5,000 to $10,000 per year and that some of them can’t read the English written manuals. The mechanics are told to substitute certain parts if they do not have the right type or just ignore the FAA standards on repair techniques. As this report is being discussed, he interview some of the mechanics who are afraid to be recognized for fear of getting fired, they reveal what they are mandated to do just to keep their jobs. It is not like they have the federal whistle blower program to protect them when they are aware of some improprieties with the company.

The airlines are required to inspect the facility but the intervals are too few and too far in between to catch any flaws and there have been flaws. It is fortunate that there have been no accidents in the servicing of these aircrafts. But why is this not on the news cycle?

You will have to go back a few years and see the erosion of the news business and those who were the stalwarts of the business starting to erode some principles. Walter Cronkite remained the benchmark of journalism. You would not see him going gently into that night by interviewing the likes of Paris Hilton or Spencer and Heidi. When Barbara Walters made her one of the Top 10 fascinating people, you questioned her credibility. What did Paris Hilton do to garner such prestige? She made a sex tape and refused to go away. She parlayed that into TV shows, personal appearances, movie deals and book deals. Was she the problem or just the vehicle for getting ratings? It was the ratings that fueled the interview just as Monica Lewinsky did when Walters interviewed her.

The news industry has been taking some severe body shots for what they have been doing and for what they have not been doing. They all claim that because the business is now a 24/7 news cycle now that they cannot afford to let anything slip by. The network news divisions are forced to compete with the cable news division. Newsprint is in free fall. Network news has cut jobs to reduce their budget. The Internet has forced the traditional form of newsgathering to change the game plan. Well, these are just the evolution and dynamic change with anything in a progressive society. It does not mean you schlep off the quality of newsgathering to placate the ratings beast. People are honest in their assessment of what they want to see but of late, we are being held captive by what is being presented. The remote control and the mute button is the escape mechanism for the audience. I don’t care about Kate’s hairstyle. I don’t care about Letterman’s personal sex life. I don’t care about your reality shows. They are not news. We throw away tons of junk mail per year. Unfortunately, we cannot easily dispose of junk news. Like the old mantra from The Outer Limits TV show, “Do not attempt to adjust your dial, we control the horizontal, we control the vertical”, they may still think that. In the age of bit streaming, data packets and the like, there are other voices and venues to satiate the need for real news over junk news. Please talk about the airline industry putting your life in jeopardy by repairing airplanes on the cheap, NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, etc.

The Troubles at The Peacock Network

By

Bobbie L. Washington

As humans, we fall down, pick ourselves up and brush ourselves off. And if there are any abrasions, place the proper bandage on the knees. This cannot be said at NBC. There has been a falling down of late with plenty of abrasions and little healing. The latest abrasion was the cancellation of the drama series, Southland. What made this cancellation stand out from other cancellation was the manner in which it was dropped, while still in production and never returning to air. And the reasoning behind this was that it was “too dark and gritty” in the real estate next to Jay Leno. Apparently, the powers that be felt that the content and graphic nature of Southland would conflict with Jay’s show.

Southland was in the makings of becoming one of the better police dramas in television history. By comparison, it had the same tenor as another NBC series, Homicide: Life on the Street. That show, from this point of view, had ugly people in it. No pretty boys or girls to become pinups posters just gritty realism in the Baltimore Police Department. It did not get great ratings but it did get accolades and a variety awards for the quality of writing and acting. It did not follow the formulaic center of your typical cop shows that resolved itself in a neat bow. It ended after seven seasons. It was a different era as the landscape of network television has been restructured for the worse. And NBC is struggling to figure out what to do and part of the problem is what they have decided to program, let’s take a look at what they’ve offered up.

Trauma, a one-hour drama about some emergency medical workers and their personal lives is not a ratings blockbuster. It began with a dramatic helicopter rescue scene on the rooftop of a skyscraper that leads to a midair crash with another helicopter. Fast-forward a year or so later and the survivors of the crash are dealing with the aftermath of the incident. There is scene on a highway where a man is recklessly driving while texting on his phone. In the immortal words of Johnny Carson, “if you buy the premise, you buy the bit”. The premise wasn’t bought when you see the scene unfold. It was reminiscent of the olds Chips TV series where you had these staged accidents on an abandon stretch of highway. The texting driver passes a tanker rig to telegraph the fact that it will be part of the accident. When the accident begins, the pileup begins and the tanker rig, that had plenty of time to stop, is struck in the middle causing fuel to leak out. Of course there is no drama or emotional dread with this scene. It is as phony and unrealistic and an insult to the viewer. To the rescue comes the team by land and by air. The survivors from the rooftop helicopter disaster are there. The helicopter pilot is cocky and arrogant. He does not need to be because it is a vehicle that doesn’t make any sense along with the rest of the behavior of the cast.

Mercy, another one-hour drama set in a hospital about an Iraqi war veteran who has a hard time coping with civilian life after returning from her tour of duty. She is gruff, she has a hard edge and she is suffering from posttraumatic distress disorder and she is constantly angry with her superiors. You would think Saturday Night Live would be doing a bit on this. The rest of the cast is rounded off with the usual suspect but does not lend itself to any one person having any stand out appeal.

On NBC’s returning shows, Heroes is still in decline. The magic is gone from the show after the honeymoon season. It’s like New Coke versus Old Coke. What happened to the formula? There seems to be no progressive development with the characters. Hiro, the time shifting mutant, is by far the most disappointing in character development. He has regressed after having such a dramatic beginning and he seems not have learned from his experience. He ended with a purpose as he wielded a sword in the battle with Sylar. But in the past season and now, he’s not interesting anymore. It is as if none of the life threatening events had left a stronger impact on him. He still was this naïve person in last season that took every person’s word as face value even after being duped many times over. This was an annoyance to many of the followers of Hiro. And the cheerleader has no focus either. What happened to some of the most interesting of mutants from the first season? There is no enemy or perilous conflict that would invite the audience to care. NBC has tinkered it into blandness. The fans of this show have left in large numbers. I had hopes for this show to come by stronger than last year but it has not been the case.

NBC has replaced five-hours of dramatic television with a two-year commitment with Jay Leno. Many producers and writers were not happy to put it nicely. If the economy wasn’t bad enough for Hollywood, the Jay Leno show displaced many actors, hair and makeup people, set dressers, extras, all of the below the line production people out of work. And this drop in the economic pond had the ripple effect on other industries that were dependant on these production jobs in various locales. The decision makers at 30 Rock made the call and the bleeding is not letting up. Why was it necessary to give up five hours to Jay? Southland was a good show that ended on a decent cliffhanger. Will the viewers get to see the six episodes already finished? No. Would it have been simpler for NBC to give up at least one night for this type of drama and let Jay have four nights?

NBC was boldly taunting the competition by making the claims that Jay was winning his timeslot before any other the other networks premiered their shows. And NBC also boasted that Conan was beating its competition by claiming him the new king of late night. After two weeks into the new TV season, those claims were being eaten with bad pie by NBC. You can’t fool the viewing public so easily with smoke and mirrors as this disaster of programming continues. By placing Jay in that timeslot, other shows in that former position are suffering as well. The Law and Order series has moved up by one or two hours depending on which one you watch. That show has some dark and gritty moments as well. Do you cancel them as well, NBC? And you forced Medium off the network but they were fortunate enough to land on CBS with better results.

NBC has promised its advertisers that Jay Leno will make money because its will run in the off-season while other shows are in repeat. Well, that type of logic is working in a vacuum. The summer months have become the new season to give new shows a first time look. There have been summer shows that have fared well in those times and if NBC thinks that Jay will have an easier time during that time, they are underestimating the other networks. NBC has also underestimated its audience, totally dissatisfied with what they are getting and is wondering what has happen to the network that Grant Tinker and Brandon Tartikoff turned into “Must See TV”.