Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Let's see what happens next . . .
John Kerry called some GOP critics "a crooked, lying group" today, unaware that a nearby mic was "live" and that others could hear his comment. How often will the media replay that clip, and in what context?
I only ask as I clearly remember when, on Sept. 4, 2000 - after speaking at a Labor Day picnic, attended, presumably, by families with children - candidate GW Bush referred to N.Y. Times reporter Adam Clymer as "an asshole." This, too, was picked up by a live mic. The comment was barely covered by the media.
No kidding.
Compare that to Howard Dean's rebel yell following his loss in the Iowa Caucuses. That clip was replayed ad infinitum, ad nauseum for days afterward.
These three examples highlight the consequences (intended or otherwise) of what I like to call "the new voyeurism," where each of our mundane, everyday actions and activities is scrutinized, microanalyzed and available to a population that's ever in search of contextless nuggets of information. (See David Brin's "2020 Vision: Journalism the Day After Tomorrow").
Two of these examples are historical, one is contemporary; let's see what happens next.
Do these nuggets represent news? Maybe. Are they important? Perhaps. Will they be covered? Reported on? Analyzed? Hmmm.
Let's see what happens next.
I only ask as I clearly remember when, on Sept. 4, 2000 - after speaking at a Labor Day picnic, attended, presumably, by families with children - candidate GW Bush referred to N.Y. Times reporter Adam Clymer as "an asshole." This, too, was picked up by a live mic. The comment was barely covered by the media.
No kidding.
Compare that to Howard Dean's rebel yell following his loss in the Iowa Caucuses. That clip was replayed ad infinitum, ad nauseum for days afterward.
These three examples highlight the consequences (intended or otherwise) of what I like to call "the new voyeurism," where each of our mundane, everyday actions and activities is scrutinized, microanalyzed and available to a population that's ever in search of contextless nuggets of information. (See David Brin's "2020 Vision: Journalism the Day After Tomorrow").
Two of these examples are historical, one is contemporary; let's see what happens next.
Do these nuggets represent news? Maybe. Are they important? Perhaps. Will they be covered? Reported on? Analyzed? Hmmm.
Let's see what happens next.
This is Roger "Ain't Nothin Live Over Here!" Scimé a graduate student at the Reynolds School of Journalism, signing off!
