MMMM #35 - Obsessive Coverage

A story about a seminar on media coverage of President Obama last week got me thinking. The seminar sponosors asked the panlists if the media pays too much attention to Obama. I don't much care about that question, but I do find myself amazed by the odd stories that will somehow resonate with TV News producers and show up endlessly on local newscasts. There's that American student charged with murder in..where?..somewhere in Europe I'm pretty sure. Look, I'm sorry someone is dead. And I'm sorry someone else may end up being punished. But why in the world would a local TV newscast include that story unless the student is in fact a local resident? What possible connection can viewers have to it? Who was the man in California charged with murdering his missing wife...Anderson? No Peterson! Another example of a "who cares" story that producers seem fascinated with. Some of this is the result of the stranglehold consultants have put on newscasts. Every single one must include a "Developing Story" and a "Breaking Story" and a "News from Outside_____" item...outside wherever the station happens to be. So the producer had to find a story to fill the "outside" slot. The story has to have some video (of course). So if a murder case in whi-knows-where is being covered by the station's network...voila! [MEDDENDUM: 1) Please read this column about the death of newspapers, and why you should care. 2) The Newspaper Association of America has collected the thoughts of ten insiders about the future of newspapers. 3) AND read this lecture, which examines the shrinking newsroom and asks this question: Will news organizations...be able to adequately cover their communities when the financial pressures are so severe and so unrelenting?] [The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog]