Death: Always News

[Fiel]

- McNamara
- Michael Jackson
- Billy Mays
- Suicide bombers in Afghanistan
- Random monorail death at Disney
- Death of U.S. soldiers in Iraq
- Suicide rates increasing during recession

OK, CNN, we get the picture - but can you cover something ELSE other than death? There are millions of newsworthy stories going on worldwide. I'd rather hear about an elephant taking a dump than to hear another death story.

[xLeviathan]

No.

They won't, apparently it's big news. To who, I don't know. The biggest death lately was Michael Jackson and even I stopped caring after about 24 hours, but the news paraded different stories for days. Sheesh.

Not to mention everyone else...
Been hearing about soldiers in Iraq for many years, I don't think they're going to stop reporting on it now, but it sure would be nice to get a break every once in awhile.

[MetaSeraphim]

That's how they make their money.

[Katie]

You forgot Farrah Fawcett =(

[crewe127]

You forgot about Steve McNair's homocide. =\
Poor guy...he was my hero.

[Derimed]

News operate on a "if it bleeds it leads" policy.

Think about the average TV viewer. You click past channels with movies mid-way through. A scene of a housewife talking to her husband about the kids, click, a few puppies running around, click, picture of a national landmark you know nothing about, click, woman bawling her eyes out because she got raped and the newstation is covering it. STOP.

When you have a violent, outrageous thing on TV, it attracts attention because it's so hideous and abnormal. TV stations care about ratings, so now you have stuff based on that, ranging from those Cops shows to news about terrorists beheading people they kidnapped. The problem is, the bleeding has been milked so dry that that's almost all media focuses on. But, though we're sick of it, we still STOP when the news has rape or murder. We then watch the commercials, so the newstation got what it wanted out of us.

[Takebacker]

abnormal

Not very abnormal if it happens several times a day. >.>

Something tells me they don't really have much else to say anyway.

[Derimed]

Not very abnormal if it happens several times a day. >.>

Something tells me they don't really have much else to say anyway.

You misunderstand. It's not abnormal if you're watching the news or if you live in a drug-ravaged ghetto where people are shooting each other daily. But in reality there has been a severe decrease in crime the last decade, and the media increased existing crime coverage by 400%. It IS abnormal in that the average person will live his whole life either never seeing rape or murder, or seeing it once or twice. As for there being 3-4 murders per day in, say, Chicago, think about it, Chicago has a population of 9.5 million people, (that's more than the population of many countries,) 3-4 daily murders per day in a city that size is normal and expected.

[Judgment]

Well, some of the people that died (as mentioned probably) were really important. One case was when Roh Moo-Hyun, former S. Korean President, died this May, but I don't remember how long his death was presented in the Korean media, given the circumstances of it. (He was the first S. Korean president to commit suicide) Come to think of it, I think their press stopped talking about it a few weeks after it happened.

So give it a bit more time, and it'll all be forgotten, and then you may see that elephant dumping on news as a headline.

[Derimed]

Well, some of the people that died (as mentioned probably) were really important. One case was when Roh Moo-Hyun, former S. Korean President, died this May, but I don't remember how long his death was presented in the Korean media, given the circumstances of it. (He was the first S. Korean president to commit suicide) Come to think of it, I think their press stopped talking about it a few weeks after it happened.

So give it a bit more time, and it'll all be forgotten, and then you may see that elephant dumping on news as a headline.

Well, the coverage of a particular death may die down, but it's the characteristic of American media to cover death, crime and gore. I think we'll just get more news about murders, rapes, kidnappings, child molestation, etc.