And yesterday the local news came on from a Charlotte station.
The lead story was about crime. Specifically, it was about a murder case in the courts featuring a young African American male who allegedly killed a young African American female. Included in the story was footage from inside the courtroom (rare), but only a tiny bit (common). Then they showed footage from of the teenager defendant in a police interrogation room being hugged by his mother; she was crying saying "It's in God's hands now, It's in God's hands now."
Clearly, the emotion of the case and the raw footage made this an appealing case of the news media.
The second story was also about crime. It dealt with a couple arrested for allegedly making Meth in their home, in front of their seven month old child (well, not in front of him, but in the same building ... "Honey, this is Meth. No, no, don't put it in your mouth!")
The mother had also reportedly been arrested for making Meth while pregnant, presumably with the same child.
Given the focus on Meth in the news media, I'm not surprised this was such a big story, but even this story was too much. The reporters interviewed neighbors, who of course, expressed surprise that Meth was being made in their neighborhood, "oh and in such a nice house, too."
One neighbor said something to the effect of "They need to be punished harshly, and not just jail either, but like, prison time, real prison time."
Then there was another story about crime.
Then a terrible accident.
Then another horrible accident, this time one that killed a local high school student.
Then another crime story.
Then, to my great surprise, the next story dealt with a proposed South Carolina law (Charlotte borders South Carolina) that would make it illegal to smoke tobacco in a car with a child in it! ... well, a child in a car seat, but not any child (I guess it is all right to harm and kill older kids).
This story was short and sweet. No experts were interviewed. No concerned neighbors were shown. More importantly, the news provided no context and no comparison to the Meth story.
Why is this law a good idea? Why is it only aimed at small children but not older kids? Do we expect 10-year olds to ask their parents to pull over so they can NOT be exposed to dangerous tobacco smoke and thus they do not need the law to protect them?
And why do we get so worked up about people making Meth around their kids but far less concerned about people smoking tobacco around their kids? The latter is far more dangerous and more likely to result in injury and death to the child than the former.
This post seems to be the exact model of what a news broadcast consists of. Crime, bad news, crime, more crime, etc. In this case maybe the feel good story was the law being passed to stop parents from harming young children with second hand smoke. I think it is interesting that the things that happen the least are the ones that get the most news coverage. Like meth labs, suicide killers, and homicides. There usually aren't stories in the news about larceny or property crime which is the most likely to happen to an individual. Probably because they aren't as interesting!
ReplyDeleteSince meth is illegal, we assume that it causes a far greater damage to society than smoking tobacco. Both of these drugs are bad for children, but, the dangers of smoking is not covered much in the media. This is because the manufacturers of tobacco may have ties with the media executives. In addition, the story about the murder case involving and African American and the story about meth brings in more profits.
ReplyDeleteThe news media have a proven formula for its local news and almost always covers crime stories first. They attract viewers with crime by using 30% of their coverage on crime. By having viewers following the stories, they will stay for the advertisements. This in turns is how the news media makes profits.