News Reporting from Outside the Ball Park

As if disaster news from earthquake demolished Haiti is not sufficiently important or the damage to homes and property in California because of several extreme storms is not considered nationally newsworthy, some media reporters seem set to develop salacious news and innuendos where none previously existed and with no regard to facts or truth.

After all, news not geared towards an individual's personal politics, lifestyle, or worldview in order to malign, smear, be vicious, disparaging or simply destructive, well - it really cannot be "real news" - now can it? At least, that is the way these newly minted, media-embellished stories by "out of the ballpark reporters" appear to those hearing or reading them.

When Fox News host Glenn Beck interviewed Sarah Palin on his show and did not immediately - brutally and mercilessly - pound her with hardball questions, accusations of being too soft on his new colleague began. Rumors suggestive of a "catfight" attitude between the pair and that Beck is concerned that Palin is after his 5 o'clock slot on Fox, implies he is nervous, angry, and suddenly territorial. Yet without any real proof or truth to the story, it not only becomes "breaking news" but front page breaking news.

While talking about Palin with Bill O'Reilly, comments to O'Reilly, (and taken completely out of context if you listen or watch the actual news footage), appear to be simply propping up subjective ideas by people other than Glenn Beck, who themselves are not happy with the answers he received from the former vice presidential candidate during his interview. Instead, by using twisted logic and skewing concepts, many of these "breaking news stories" are being made out of "whole cloth" based on rumors, fiction, or just plain fabrication of the truth in order to promote their own personal or political agendas.

Again, when Beck took exception to comments Scott Brown said regarding his daughters dating availability to the world at large on national television, proclamations are shouted from the rooftops of Beck's attempt to rain on Brown's parade regarding his win of the Massachusetts Senate seat. Certainly, Scott Brown meant nothing wrong by saying his daughters were "available", yet he definitely opened the door to perverts and weirdos and which was seriously substantiated by the over 1000 requests for a date on one daughter's Facebook account within 24 hours of Brown's statement.

"All the news that's fit to print" used to be the motto that every good newspaper or reporting service used to live by. Coined by Adolph Ochs in 1897, it was meant to distinguish real reporting from the "lurid yellow" reporting done by other news agencies and was printed as the newspaper motto on the front of the New York Times after Ochs acquired the paper in 1896.

However, times have changed. It seems that "yellow journalism" is alive, well and widespread as certain media-mongers believe any news, real or perceived as real, is legitimate news regardless of the facts. Although this has been long held as acceptable for some of the tabloid magazines we see on store shelves, it seems those selfsame tabloids are more often right on the money with their reporting than so-called legitimate news reporters.

All those reports, based on information given by "anonymous sources" are probably nothing more than a cover to provide filler information that is not available, actually known, or proven at news publishing deadlines. Those journalists and reporters, who apparently are not able to investigate and report on what is actually happening in the world today, need to sit down and shut up - or find a job they are more suited for. Bylines based on egotistical and arrogant reporting are worthless in today's world.

Sources:
Glenn Beck Marks Anniversary by Marking His Turf, by Mara Gay, January 22 2010
Scott Brown's Daughter Ayla Flooded With Date Offers After Dad's Speech, by David Sessions, January 22 2010
Catfight at Fox Between Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin?, by Rob Shuter, January 19 2010