News: The Real Reality TV?

I was watching Larry King on the news tonight and he had several reporters as guests, including Diane Sawyer. During a small discussion on "reality TV" Ms Sawyer made a comment that "eventually reality TV will run its course and people will realize that news is the real reality TV". I had to chuckle. I think everyone knows that most news channels, shows, papers, etc. have a skewed vision of a reality just like any of the forms of entertainment reality TV.

Just like Survivor is subject to editing and re-shooting ceremonial scenes, the news is subject to opinions of reporters and others involved in producing news media. Both have the ultimate goal of reaching a target audience. If the producers of Survivor want you to think that the most popular cast away might get voted off, they will cut the footage to give you that impression. The news does the same thing.

I was also watching Hardball today and Chris Matthews was constantly focusing his questions and conversation to his belief or agenda to make the statement that this whole election is about the war in Iraq. "If you are for it, vote for Bush, if you are against it, vote for Kerry." According to him it should be just that simple. Well unfortunately it is not simple. Of course there is a lot more to this election than the war in Iraq and people need to discuss all the issues.

Another good example is John Stossels "Give Me a Break!" pieces. Sometimes I am very interested in what he has to say, but most of the time I just want to scream at the screen for Mr. Stossel to give "me" a break. I remember one of his reports around the millennium was about the census and how it was "too long!". Personally, I don't know what they do with the census data, but his report was encouraging people to not fill out the report. A report we only have to fill out once every ten years. Are Americans really that lazy? "John, Give me a break!"

No, most news is no more reality TV than Survivor and Big Brother. I sure wish I had more stations to watch than the AFN News channel. Survivor and Big Brother would be a nice change. News should be news, not entertainment or tools for political platforms.