The Real News
31st July 2011
David Friedman points out the many ways in which the news business isn’t.
Reading Google News, I am struck by the degree to which dramatic stories crowd out arguably more important material. The top of the page is dominated by the current U.S. debt limit crisis. It is an entertaining example of the game of Chicken as played by politicians but of limited importance otherwise, since both sides are focused not on how to deal with the long term debt problem but on the terms on which they will agree to postpone dealing with it.Meanwhile there are at least two other stories getting considerably less play but arguably of more real importance.
July 31st, 2011 at 16:45
Hearst pioneered it, and everybody else learned the lesson: Sensationalism sells newspapers.
Since the purpose of news outlets is to get folks to buy (they’re capitalist enterprises, after all), why all this hand-wringing about the poor quality of the information tendered?
The other stories might be “more important” in Friedman’s view (how elitist of him) but I trust the news outlets to know their customers best.