American Journalism

I have become somewhat addicted to TED.com and here is why: some of the most intelligent and creative minds in America and beyond give their best and most poignant insights into what they see as most important. There is much to disagree with in these short monologues but there is no other forum like that I know of today. If this were ancient Greece TED.com would be the place sophists held court. In this particular clip a formal criticism is made against American journalism. It is short but insightful. The same night I watched this clip I took an informal survey of the 4 or five cable news channels I have access to. My purpose was to sample 20 straight minutes of their news information and find a ratio of what could be considered "positive" news stories against what could be "considered" negative news stories. My I had hoped to either legitimize or debunk the notion that our news outlets were "fear mongering" or catering to the public's oft cited insatiable desire for dirty news. I could not produce an actual ratio because in those twenty minutes there were no "positive" news stories between all the networks and various local news reports I witnessed. The point I make is that our news media has a needs intervention. The commentary of Alisa Miller in this video is far more revealing than my mean little survey but they both say the same thing- American journalism is not a window to the world at all- it is a bigger window into what interests Americans. I think we can all agree that this is not a capstone upon which we should make choices as to what should or should not be in the news.