Anna Nicole Smith And Our National Media Embarassment-- ThinkProgress

[TexasLawyer]

Anna Nicole Smith And Our National Media Embarassment

The death of Anna Nicole Smith yesterday was a feeding frenzy for the national media, and coverage of the war was drowned out: NBC’s Nightly News devoted 14 seconds to Iraq compared to 3 minutes and 13 seconds to Anna Nicole. CNN referenced Anna Nicole 522% more frequently than it did Iraq. MSNBC was even worse — 708% more references to Anna Nicole than Iraq.

The lop-sided coverage largely ignored many key developments in Iraq, including the sixth downing of a U.S. helicopter in the past three weeks, the allegations that a deputy Iraqi health minister was aiding a Shiite militia in its attacks against U.S. troops, and the death of four Marines.

ThinkProgress has collected some of the many, many lowlights of yesterday’s coverage (i.e., Larry King: “The death of Anna Nicole Smith is the number one story around the world tonight”), along with a lone highlight provided by CNN’s Jack Cafferty. Watch it:

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/09/anna-nicole-media-embarassment/

[bleedingheart]

1. It isn't new.....It's called "Bread and Circuses"

although today...we see more Circuses and less Bread.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. I'm profoundly saddened by the loss of Anna Nicole.

How could I not be? She's the mother of my child.

[rocktivity]

5. Now that it will next to impossible for her child to get any of that billionaire's money

Let's see how much longer her fathers stick around.

:headbang:
rocknation

[geiger]

6. what is wrong with you?

[babylonsister]

3. More like a disgrace. nt

[geiger]

4. I dont know what your point is really; some days people need a reason to tune out the crimes being

committed by our govt. It's just painful, and after awhile, I relate more to Anna Nicole who was also being screwed over by the powers that be. It sucks, it totally sucks.

[Raffi Ella]

7. Truly,I am astonished.

And right now and all day the news has been on this woman;as our soldiers die and Bush inches towards attacking Iran we are force fed Anna.

[roguevalley]

23. she didn't ask for this coverage. she just died alone. its not her

fault and pillorying her corpse says more about who is doing it than her, poor woman. she didn't ask for this coverage. remember that. blame the people responsible. pillory them, not her memory.

[EV_Ares]

8. Corporate Media Is No Longer Relevant - It is nothing more than entertainment

news. They do not actually cover a story anymore nor one that is highly important. They only take stories, frame them they way they want to present them and there you are.

The Pelosi incident was not an incident but a media event.

The Edwards blogging incident is just an attack on bloggers by the media.

Anna Nicole is the media at their finest except for someone falling off of a ship which they do really well. The death of Anna is certainly newsworthy but not for the amount of coverage they are giving it and it is mostly the same thing over and over.

[Rosemary2205]

9. The media change I would like to see is

laws with teeth to make them stay out of people's walking path, so many feet back from the car, stay off private property, make the kids and unwilling relatives off limits.

The media hounded Richard Jewell's mother into a heart attack. They hounded John Mark Karr's brother had to sell the house and move to a gated community. They got so far up in Cynthia McKinney's face one of her bodyguards had to physically push them out of the way to get her in the car.

There's got to be a way to control that.

[snappyturtle]

10. Honest to God my husband and I were

yelling at the two televisions we have on to watch afternoon news hoping to get the latest on the Libby trial and the war and instead we got "Anna". How many other Annas were there across the nation yesterday? OK--she was a celebrity of sorts, but how long does it take to say she passed away and when the autopsy is finished we'll hear "the rest of the story". Personally, I think Anna was a sad case but there are many, many sad cases out there. We have a very close friend in Afghanistan and a nephew in Iraq--those stories took a back seat....amazing.

edit: spelling

[mzmolly]

11. I love think progress, and have no problem with the media covering the ANS death. However,

I think the media obsessed about her situation far too long. As Dean said long ago, we have a "tabloidesque news media." Of course, I obsess about this sort of thing as well, but I'm a bored housewife. ;)

[Zensea]

12. of course it was a feeding frenzy, that' s the nature of it

I just don't get people that get particularly upset about this kind of stuff.
TV media has no responsibility to be anything actually.
It's all entertainment, a charade, propaganda and a medium for advertisements to sell things.

Sure it's nice when in that process it actually does manage to inform and be serious, but expecting such a thing is a complete pipe dream. Why pick on their coverage of Anna Nicole? That coverage is just part and parcel of the whole shebang.

I haven't owned a TV in 10 years and this is one of the reasons.
My advice to people is if the media frenzy bothers you so much when the media does this kind of thing, then just turn off your TV --- there's noone making you watch it except for yourself & if you want to get "real" news or focus on other news all you have to do is look elsewhere.

[TexasLawyer]

13. I thought this was a good post on the TP website:

The media is simply a reflection of the culture. We can throw around percentage comparisons of coverage and babble on about how terrible it is that so much attention is given to it. And all these feelings are valid and justified. But, really, I think you are working yourself up into a frenzy over a blip on the radar screen. Celebrity crap, like feel-good animal stories, missing young white women, and Bill Clinton’s sex life are simply irresistible for our punditocracy and the majority of our semi-literate populace. Why can’t we just accept that?

This momentary attention to all things celebrity will fade away shortly and the American public will still have to face the stark realities that young Americans will still be dying in Iraq, their fellow citizens will still be imprisoned indefinitely without charge, rendered to other countries for torture, habeas corpus will still be suspended, the government will still be spying on them without a warrant, the Geneva Convention will still be considered “quaint” by this administration and the rich will still be getting richer while the rest of us get poorer.

So let them have their little celebrity roller coaster ride for the time being. They cannot run away from reality forever. As much as they try, reality will not let them escape. America, the day is coming to pay the piper. And it is not going to be pretty. There aren’t enough dead celebrities in the world to keep the day of reckoning at bay.

Comment by Mike — February 9, 2007 @ 12:00 pm

[judaspriestess]

14. more propaganda

for the mindless sheep out there to soak it up and not see what is really going on. I am sorry for the loss of Anna Nicole Smith but you are right, every freaking second on tv is crazy. It seems like they are covering her more than they did Princess Diana. Which is a flat out ridiculous and shameful and we were not at war at that time.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. Naughty celebrities sell more beer and toothpaste than news.

[Critters2]

16. CNN was about to do something on the Levin committee, when

they broke in with a news conference about the paternity crap. I nearly put my foot through the TV!

[Robbien]

17. Cafferty: Is Anna Nicole Smith still dead, Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes, we're going to -- updating our viewers coming up shortly on...

CAFFERTY: I can't wait for that.

BLITZER: ... the mysterious circumstances surrounding that, Jack. Thank you.

Ha!

[progressoid]

20. Way to go Jack!

It's no surprise that CNN makes him second fiddle. He's too blunt and honest.

[frylock]

22. awesome!

[GeorgeGist]

18. The media moguls have been so successful...

in driving away real journalists, that they are left to the mercy of their high-priced amateurs. :rofl:

[dorkulon]

19. Our long national nightmare is over.

[Critters2]

21. LOL!!! nt