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The media's distorting lens

I wonder how many times when one of us gets a story on the radio or television about a subject we know about, we go "that is not very accurate". I paraphrase here.

For me, I find it happens more and more often and in stranger ways.

The noise of the media was drowning out information anyway, but here is an example for you.

The BBC thinks that a story about a film about a Norwegian film about gay penguins is more important than

1) Russia, under new tyranny, is killing far more than just prominent journalists
2) North Korea will detonate a second nuclear bomb- according to local sources
3) Several more countries are pulling troops out of Iraq
4) The Queen is having a successful tour in the Baltics, and condemns Russian brutality
5) Segolene Royal is more likely than ever to be the first woman President of France
6) "Borat"- a fictional character gets an invitation to Kazakhstan.

OK, OK. Gay penguins it is... You silly twisted boys.

Comments

Anonymous said…
The public is doing the distorting, the media just reflects what the public is interested in. Frankly, everything on your list I was aware of already. But gay penguins, now that's news. Guess which story would get more inbound links on the BBC News website?

It's up to politicians and campaigners - yes and bloggers) to raise public awareness and interest in the things you list. It's not the media's job to dictate what the public should be interested in.
10:03 am
Cicero said…
I agree that "those that have the appreciation should make the discernment"- and make some noise.

However the media is not a neutral instrument, merely relecting "our readers" (or viewers or listeners).

The media most often has an independent agenda for "what is news"- whether Mr. Murdoch's or somebody elses. That agenda does not have the best interests of the readers at heart but a whole range of other factors that shape it.
5:50 pm
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