Snowflake: The media wars continue...
For the last month, if Sarah Palin blows her nose while taking a dump, my local news station has been all over it. This is nothing terribly new, there's only ONE local newscast (even though it is broadcast over TWO different stations - CBS and NBC... and if you want a laugh, go check out the websites for illustration of my point.) Because this area is full of farmers and money, there is an obvious conservative bent to their reporting. It's rather amusing to catch, at times; if the word-choice isn't overtly dismissive of democrats or any mention of "going green", there's an actual sneer on the reporters' faces while they speak Obama's name. If it weren't on a supposedly neutral and unbiased local news station (and if there were actually some competition for them in the area) I would be amused by their blatant disregard for news reporting.
However, since Sarah Palin deigned the nearby Redding, CA worthy of her book tour, our local news has become infatuated with her more-so than usual. The hard-on is visible and what's terrible is that the female reporter at the news desk is no less obvious than her male-cohort (which is occasionally her husband when the regular guy isn't around.) The thing that has started to infuriate me is that the local news half-hour show dedicates an entire segment to updating the status of Palin's book-tour on a regular basis. They reported first that she was going to be in town, and then again last night that she had opened it up to two separate time-slots so that more people could fit her in. (Click here for the online CBS station coverage of the second show, and here for the NBC station coverage. You'll love the variety.)
The local news station advertises where tickets can be bought, what hours, and how much they cost. They sell the tickets for the woman. With great big smiles on their faces.
My umbrage with this issue is two fold.
Firstly, Sarah Palin is no longer a political figure. She is no longer a governor - particularly considering she quit at hardly the half-way point - and she has said that she is not going to be pursuing a presidential campaign. While the lack of further political ambition is probably bullshit, the current situation is that Sarah Palin is a private citizen. She is not an expert in any field, despite her apparent willingness to open her mouth against so many topics. She is "just another hockey mom" from Alaska. She is an entertainer. As such, the local news has no obligations to the community to follow her movements. They are never negative of the woman, despite her many flaws and instances of Foot-In-Mouth Disease. As I remember it, they even bashed Letterman - A CBS ENTERTAINER!!! - during Palin's little attention-whoring war with the man.
They don't keep tabs on GW Bush as former president, they don't keep tabs on John McCain as former presidential hopeful, and they certainly don't dog Britney Spears' footsteps even though there are many people in the city who would love to hand them the free press. Sarah Palin, however, gets a lot of free advertising, figuratively and literally.
Secondly, I take issue with the fact that they are so obviously selling tickets. The station has yet to air a single commercial for the venue, no "Come see Sarah!" tv ads during the commercial view times of any show, and instead they give her full segments during the news hours at 5:30, 6:30, and 11, am and pm.
We have had world leaders speak in Chico and Redding. We have had presidents, politicians, political refugees, scientists, authors, musicians, poets, comedians, and dance troupes, as well as Broadway plays do tours through that very same venue that Sarah Palin is going to be speaking at. The local news has not weighed in on their appearances. Those entertainers have been forced to spend money on the advertising during commercial breaks. They don't even get the coverage of the lines of people wrapped around the building to see them perform. There's no free advertising for the other nearby events, political or otherwise.
This extends in particular to local events. We have schools k-12 that are hurting financially in huge ways this year. There are fundraisers right and left being put on at rather large scale with still pitiful turn-out rates. Some have even brought in celebrities from Hollywood, or from the sports world. These things are not covered. There is occasionally a *single* Friday night segment dedicated to local stuff, like the booster club fundraisers for the high school sports, or a Saturday craft fair for a preschool that is entirely donation-operated. One a *week*. There are far more fundraisers than one a week, and the obvious story that is never covered is that our local schools are broke and having to cut programs, and the students are doing the fundraisers themselves to try to save their classes. The fundraisers that pay for it will go on the 'community calender' commercial that airs once a week, and the "feel good" story about homegrown sports-star-kids goes on Friday nights.
In contrast, Sarah Palin goes on Conan O'Brien's show, fights with David Letterman, or writes an op-ed for the New York Times and gets covered every other day of the week.
They do not provide free advertising to support local efforts, non-profit, educational events that support kids or other hometown organizations, but a hick from Alaska says something on Twitter? They're on it like fly paper.
When Twilight and Harry Potter garnered huge lines and broke records, the local news didn't sell tickets - they sent out a reporter to cover the event and laugh at all the nerds, and they reported how much money the shows brought in. They didn't spend six months doing build-up via nearly-nightly reports on what Rpatz and Harry ate for breakfast and where. Sarah Palin giving a speech at a convention center is no different than the local movie theater playing movies. If Sarah really wanted to make money, she'd do the thing Glenn Beck's doing with Fathom events, whore herself out to a one-woman show that broadcasts across movie theaters nation wide simultaneously - there'll be matinee showings for that, too! And she wouldn't have to go anywhere near that bus she has made a career out of complaining about being tossed under by McCain.
At any rate, Fathom events not withstanding, there's no difference between Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, or Keith Olbermann, or Rush Limbaugh now. She's a talking mouth, just like them. The only difference I've seen, while browsing her articles online and the comments that are left for her, is that a lot of her fans want her mouth to do explicit things to certain parts of their male anatomy. So I have no idea how she still warrants nightly updates from our one local news-station. We have many other things going on that one would expect a local news-station to cover in depth that are being instead ignored. What is the point in a local news-station if all they cover are the movements of their parent-company's choice in entertainers?
However, since Sarah Palin deigned the nearby Redding, CA worthy of her book tour, our local news has become infatuated with her more-so than usual. The hard-on is visible and what's terrible is that the female reporter at the news desk is no less obvious than her male-cohort (which is occasionally her husband when the regular guy isn't around.) The thing that has started to infuriate me is that the local news half-hour show dedicates an entire segment to updating the status of Palin's book-tour on a regular basis. They reported first that she was going to be in town, and then again last night that she had opened it up to two separate time-slots so that more people could fit her in. (Click here for the online CBS station coverage of the second show, and here for the NBC station coverage. You'll love the variety.)
The local news station advertises where tickets can be bought, what hours, and how much they cost. They sell the tickets for the woman. With great big smiles on their faces.
My umbrage with this issue is two fold.
Firstly, Sarah Palin is no longer a political figure. She is no longer a governor - particularly considering she quit at hardly the half-way point - and she has said that she is not going to be pursuing a presidential campaign. While the lack of further political ambition is probably bullshit, the current situation is that Sarah Palin is a private citizen. She is not an expert in any field, despite her apparent willingness to open her mouth against so many topics. She is "just another hockey mom" from Alaska. She is an entertainer. As such, the local news has no obligations to the community to follow her movements. They are never negative of the woman, despite her many flaws and instances of Foot-In-Mouth Disease. As I remember it, they even bashed Letterman - A CBS ENTERTAINER!!! - during Palin's little attention-whoring war with the man.
They don't keep tabs on GW Bush as former president, they don't keep tabs on John McCain as former presidential hopeful, and they certainly don't dog Britney Spears' footsteps even though there are many people in the city who would love to hand them the free press. Sarah Palin, however, gets a lot of free advertising, figuratively and literally.
Secondly, I take issue with the fact that they are so obviously selling tickets. The station has yet to air a single commercial for the venue, no "Come see Sarah!" tv ads during the commercial view times of any show, and instead they give her full segments during the news hours at 5:30, 6:30, and 11, am and pm.
We have had world leaders speak in Chico and Redding. We have had presidents, politicians, political refugees, scientists, authors, musicians, poets, comedians, and dance troupes, as well as Broadway plays do tours through that very same venue that Sarah Palin is going to be speaking at. The local news has not weighed in on their appearances. Those entertainers have been forced to spend money on the advertising during commercial breaks. They don't even get the coverage of the lines of people wrapped around the building to see them perform. There's no free advertising for the other nearby events, political or otherwise.
This extends in particular to local events. We have schools k-12 that are hurting financially in huge ways this year. There are fundraisers right and left being put on at rather large scale with still pitiful turn-out rates. Some have even brought in celebrities from Hollywood, or from the sports world. These things are not covered. There is occasionally a *single* Friday night segment dedicated to local stuff, like the booster club fundraisers for the high school sports, or a Saturday craft fair for a preschool that is entirely donation-operated. One a *week*. There are far more fundraisers than one a week, and the obvious story that is never covered is that our local schools are broke and having to cut programs, and the students are doing the fundraisers themselves to try to save their classes. The fundraisers that pay for it will go on the 'community calender' commercial that airs once a week, and the "feel good" story about homegrown sports-star-kids goes on Friday nights.
In contrast, Sarah Palin goes on Conan O'Brien's show, fights with David Letterman, or writes an op-ed for the New York Times and gets covered every other day of the week.
They do not provide free advertising to support local efforts, non-profit, educational events that support kids or other hometown organizations, but a hick from Alaska says something on Twitter? They're on it like fly paper.
When Twilight and Harry Potter garnered huge lines and broke records, the local news didn't sell tickets - they sent out a reporter to cover the event and laugh at all the nerds, and they reported how much money the shows brought in. They didn't spend six months doing build-up via nearly-nightly reports on what Rpatz and Harry ate for breakfast and where. Sarah Palin giving a speech at a convention center is no different than the local movie theater playing movies. If Sarah really wanted to make money, she'd do the thing Glenn Beck's doing with Fathom events, whore herself out to a one-woman show that broadcasts across movie theaters nation wide simultaneously - there'll be matinee showings for that, too! And she wouldn't have to go anywhere near that bus she has made a career out of complaining about being tossed under by McCain.
At any rate, Fathom events not withstanding, there's no difference between Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, or Keith Olbermann, or Rush Limbaugh now. She's a talking mouth, just like them. The only difference I've seen, while browsing her articles online and the comments that are left for her, is that a lot of her fans want her mouth to do explicit things to certain parts of their male anatomy. So I have no idea how she still warrants nightly updates from our one local news-station. We have many other things going on that one would expect a local news-station to cover in depth that are being instead ignored. What is the point in a local news-station if all they cover are the movements of their parent-company's choice in entertainers?