Friday, January 12, 2007

MEDIA FAILURE

I have been bothered for some time by the news media, and probably it is more CNN and Foxnews, for not really covering the news. They tend to overwhelm us with the current car chase or some current news crisis in D.C. and ignore other major issues that might come crashing into our living rooms at a later date. But at the moment, I guess they feel no viewer would be interested in some event or trend that just does not seem to capture the theatrical vision for news they want. They seem to hop from crisis to crisis spending days talking about one issue.

Therefore it was with some surprise that I opened up the "Points" section of the January 7, 2007 Dallas Morning News. It contained an article on the "Top 10 Stories You Missed in 2006." However, I don't like the headline, because it is not the reader who missed the stories, it was the news media which failed to keep us informed because they just focus on only a few issues to somehow enlighten the public on. The interesting thing to me was that if a person were following a number of bloggers, the stories would not have been missed.

In case you interested the top ten were:

10. Hackable passports
9. The possible effects of Tamiflu (to counteract the bird flu)
8. Oil producers are investing in Euros, not just dollars
7. The gender gap is getting smaller
6. Iran and Israel held secret talks
5. The US is funding the Taliban
4. Russia is fueling an arms race in Latin America
3. Bush's post-Katrina power grab
2. China's African debt is increasing
1. India is helping Iran develop its nuclear program

As I look at the list, a number of these have far more significance for the future of America than what I see being discussed or reported.

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