# Has The American News Media Taken Crazy Pills? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 23, 2013, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104 "2013-01-23T14:05:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/21 "2013-01-23T18:07:27Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > See, I didn’t know that. I understand the reasons, but there’s a part of me that still considers it bad form. His Wikipedia article has a quote from him: “A broken string was not an option. It was wicked cold.” I don’t know what the exact temperature and humidity was in D.C., but I think it is a given that it was _very_ cold and _very_ dry, neither of which are conductive to singing. I’m not defending her (I fast-forwarded through her performance) but I can understand why she did it. I blame [the Twentieth Amendment](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twentieth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution), which moved it from March 4th, an altogether more congenial time of year. Update: Hi, Olive! ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/22 "2013-01-23T18:32:07Z")
I don’t own a TV. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/23 "2013-01-23T18:37:54Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Anytime I hear the phrase “the \_\_\_\_\_\_ everyone’s talking about”, it’s a guarantee that I’ve never heard anyone talk about it and I wouldn’t have cared about it anyway. “And now, a preview for the upcoming **NEW SMASH HIT MOVIE** by Michael Bey!” ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/24 "2013-01-23T18:39:13Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > My recommendation: turn off the TV, and turn on NPR on the radio. Yeah, yeah. You’ve got some pipe soot on your mutton chops there, Percy. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/25 "2013-01-23T18:45:11Z")
[More details here.](http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/afterhours/inauguration-2013/did-beyonce-lip-sync-the-star-spangled-banner.php) The Marine Corps Band always records a performance ahead of time just in case, and everyone records their music ahead of time. Supposedly she used the recording because she hadn’t had time to rehearse with the full band, not because of the weather. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/26 "2013-01-23T18:57:46Z")
Although this involves a singer, the thread’s not really about music. Moving to IMHO from Cafe. ---
**Author:** ![Saraya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Saraya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saraya)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/27 "2013-01-23T19:05:10Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > It’s been shown - conclusively, to my mind - that the viewing public has next to no interest\* in watching bad news about tragedies and people hurting and things totally out of their control in the morning as background to getting their day started. Every effort to feature hard news in the morning has failed miserably. The morning shows respond to their viewers. > > If you - plural you - don’t like what’s on morning news, look in your mirrors for the reason. > \*Except when a Newtown or something similar happens. Even then, what they want and demand are endless interviews with grieving parents who they can empathize with, not actual news about the underlying problems. Really, it’s been shown that? Heck we’ve known that..it used to be an unsaid obvious way of life. Then networks got this great idea that the American people wanted to know what was happening all around the world - filling newspapers and television with sound and images of doom and gloom. A lot of good that accomplished, as now they’ve had to take surveys and realized as you say that the general public does not want to wake up to information about atrocities. Well no sh… If it doesn’t directly concern said country (America in this example) then what the heck does it matter? Maybe if America wasn’t so involved in other people’s business there’d be nothing to report! I’d rather it be a slow news day with Beyonce’s lip synching at the headline, than some ‘news’ with images about dismembered children found after a refugee hospital bombing in Africa by African rebels whom we supplied with weapons in order to defend invasion from a waring tribe only a few years before of which we had no requirement to do so and cost us not only resources and money, but now has indirectly resulted in the death of children while furthering a renegade genocide agenda. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/28 "2013-01-23T19:06:02Z")
Do you find Al Roker entertaining? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/29 "2013-01-23T19:09:54Z")
> [@Saraya](#): > > If it doesn’t directly concern said country (America in this example) then what the heck does it matter? News didn’t stop at national borders 200 years ago, and it doesn’t stop there now. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/30 "2013-01-23T20:05:50Z")
I watch about 20 minutes of news in the morning, long enough to get traffic and weather. I choose my station because the weatherman is personable and the traffic girl comely (both anchors are douche-bags who I often have to turn off). Both of these stories were carried in that 20 minutes. You wouldn’t happen to have been watching Fox 5 in NYC, would you? ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/31 "2013-01-23T20:09:34Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > My recommendation: turn off the TV, and turn on NPR on the radio. Actual news, occasional fluff but not much. > Roddy NPR doesn’t give detailed enough weather and no traffic/subway updates. But I do listen to Morning Edition later in the day. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/32 "2013-01-24T01:55:35Z")
[Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U4Ha9HQvMo) ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/33 "2013-01-24T02:36:27Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > NPR doesn’t give detailed enough weather and no traffic/subway updates. Typical liberal media. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/34 "2013-01-24T14:47:44Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Typical liberal media. On the other hand, NPR didn’t waste time arguing whether one was Team Nicki or Team Mariah for 10 minutes, nor did they have a football player who could barely read the copy doing the sports, then pimping some social networking site he’s trying to launch. Tough choice. ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/35 "2013-01-24T16:09:38Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > There’s a terrible horrible cold wave affecting the northern and central U.S., and as a result temperatures are reaching average minimums for January. > > Somehow this seems less apocalyptic to me than the media is making it out to be. That’s just because you’re a heartless person who doesn’t care about others FREEZING TO DEATH!!1! in the APOCALYPTIC WAVE Of COLD!!1!! It hit 3 degree Fahrenheit here last night, the coldest night we’ve had yet this winter. Of course, in many winters we’d have already had at least one night of -20 F, so this is a warmer-than average winter so far, but you wouldn’t know that from the way the media is carrying on. Reporting real news takes work, is expensive, and can even be dangerous. No wonder they stick with drivel. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/36 "2013-01-24T17:10:23Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > Do you find Al Roker entertaining? Before I respond, is it possible there exists a recent viral video of Roker falling into a commercial meat grinder? ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/37 "2013-01-24T17:35:20Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Before I respond, is it possible there exists a recent viral video of Roker falling into a commercial meat grinder? No. It would have appeared on America’s Funniest Home Videos by now. With a laugh track as the blood and guts spew out the top. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/38 "2013-01-24T21:12:17Z")
The media loves to fixate on the same 3 or 4 stories and run them into the ground as long as they can. Personally I don’t see how lip-synching is a good thing, but I’m not going to lose any sleep over it or care enough to watch more than 30 seconds of news about it. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/39 "2013-01-24T21:15:05Z")
Just to bring this full-circle, [an argument that she wasn’t lip-synching.](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/01/beyonce_lip_syncing_at_the_inauguration_musician_mike_doughty_says_she_was.html?wpisrc=newsletter_slatest_morning_newsletter) It’s the modern-day JFK Assassination. 9/11 was peanuts compared to this. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104/40 "2013-01-24T21:16:54Z")
Some news stories are so important, you can barely not give a shit about them if you didn’t see it firsthand. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-american-news-media-taken-crazy-pills/648104.md?page=3)