Local TV: advertising trumps journalism
As TV stations race to promote themselves, any remnant of news and/or journalism is left in the dust. Journalism left broadcasting long ago. Here's but one local example, but true across the board...
Channel 4 (WTMJ-TV) has a self-promotion, advertising spot that plays regularly, showing a married couple commenting on the husband's heart transplant. The station was asked, as a last resort, to help them get the transplant. It concludes with the husband saying, "If it wasn't for WTMJ I wouldn't be here. It's that simple."
It was great that WTMJ could help these folks. There are hordes of them in the same predicament. The FAR BIGGER story here is that a man had to resort to asking a TV station to help save his life. The healthcare system in the U.S. is not willing to so. Repeat: there are many thousands of people like this in a dead end ticket to the grave. THIS is the news story, and not that this predicament saved one life. It is a NEWS story, and America should be ashamed. But it isn't. After all, it might cost tax money to provide civilized healthcare. This makes me sick, no pun intended. And to make matters worse, not only is it not presented vigorously as a news story, but it is used as self-promotion.
Do I need to write anymore on this subject? Aren't you ashamed? Apparently not.
