Repeated every morning on CNN:
Paula Zahn: General Whomever, CNN has word that a missile launched 10 seconds ago is not on target. Do you know about any civilian casualties?
General Whomever: Paula, unfortunately, not all missiles are 100% on target.
Richard Butler: It’s Saddam’s fault. He has weapons of mass destruction.
PZ: So General, you are saying that you deliberately attacked Afghan civilians.
GW: Paula, in times of war, sadly, there are always civilian casualties.
RB: It’s Saddam’s fault. He has weapons of mass destruction.
PZ: So you are saying there ARE civilian casualties.
GW: We won’t know anything until the bomb actually lands.
RB: It’s Saddam’s fault. He has weapons of mass destruction.
PZ: So General, you are not denying that you aimed at civilians.
GW: Bad things sometimes happen in times of war.
RB: It’s Saddam’s fault. He has weapons of mass destruction.
PZ: Thank you General, Richard. And now maybe, just maybe, our next correspondent could offer some actual news, rather than me rehashing last weeks story yet again.
GW: Thank you Paula
RB: It’s Saddam’s fault. He has weapons of mass destruction.
This is usually the last bit of news I see every morning right before I leave for work. Hasn’t changed in weeks. Paula asks ridiculous questions of whichever sacrifice the Pentagon offers her (ridiculous not necessarily in content, except she gives the respondents no time to sort through the information to determine fact from rhetoric) and then Richard Butler comes on (same time every morning) and blames the entire “War on Terrorism” on Saddam Hussein.
And it’s not just Paula. Too many ‘journalists’ want instant answers. When they don’t get their answers, or get instant answers which turn out to be wrong, they start leaping to conclusions absent any facts. Add to that the sheer number of ‘journalists’ spouting different theories and then repeating each other’s theories, and you get a jumpy, jittery, poorly-informed public.
My challenge to all journalists: Don’t worry about just being first. Worry about being the most accurate the first.
sigh I’ll go and sit on my roof and wait for Santa now.
She doesn’t go out and get stories–she just reads the stories she’s given.
This is like complaining that Charlie Gibson on GMA doesn’t do in-depth journalism. He’s not getting paid to do in-depth journalism, he’s getting paid to sit there and look genial and reassuring while people get ready for work with one eye on the TeeVee.
Richard Butler isn’t a journalist, either, he’s a “Former U.N. Chief Weapons Inspector in Iraq”, and since Iraq is his specialty, it’s only natural for him to connect everything in the whole wide world to Saddam.
But I do know what you mean, about the daily “yadda yadda yadda”. So, rewrite it.