CNN, MSNBC and other mainstream cable news networks are relentless in covering the biggest issues of the day ad nauseam. And that’s a problem. Two or three stories reported on, speculated about, and commented on by every single news personality becomes tedious, even when the issues are of world wide importance. To spice things up now and then they offer a bit of whatever is salacious, scandalous or sensational. It’s very foxworthy of them.
They could do better and I suggest they must do better. It’s unlikely they will take counsel from a retired country parson any more than I would take advice from them about theology and, as well, I fit not a single one of their preferred demographics. So I’ll begin by saying what follows is based in part on what CNN International does so well as it casts a wide net to cover news of importance and interest to a global audience.
Diversity of subject matter is a problem and it seems to me there’s a simple solution toward expansion. There are fifty states. Something of economic or political importance is happening in each one of them every day. Some news is of purely local interest, but some has national implications that need to be made known to a wider audience.
Bracketing the usual suspects of scandal and violence, state and regional issues of economic and political importance offer a huge menu from which to draw thereby enriching the American public with a deeper understanding of what is going on in places other than their home town, New York and Washington, DC.
Local news media do the best they can to keep readers and viewers informed about what is going on elsewhere, but with limited resources it’s too easy to rip and read what has already been opined to date by cable news.
Subject matter diversification shouldn’t be all that difficult for the big cable networks. The ground work is already done by existing sources: Federal Reserve district banks, major statewide newspapers, regional think tanks, local NPR and PBS stations, etc. What cable news needs is imaginative staff who can discern the wider importance of local or regional issues. Think of them as news skunkworks insulated from the oppressive atmosphere of cynical marketing types and bottom line bean counters.
The networks might even dare to begin offering important economic and political news from Mexico and Canada. Canadian provincial news is especially important to northern tier states, as is Mexican state news to southern border states. It certainly wouldn’t hurt Americans to be better informed about what is gong on in our neighboring countries.
Making cable news more diversified in this way would leave more than enough room to go on and on about the big national and international issues. It might cut down on the endless chattering of pundit panels. It would certainly help create a more well informed public, perhaps leading to less civic divisiveness.
I turned off MSNBC covering the shooting in the Brooklyn subway this morning. Without any real information they were “reporting” endlessly on any tidbit they could find just to keep the viewing/listening public connected to their channel. It happens with all the big stations when they really have an obligation to wait for accurate information.
Well said, my friend. We were talking about this very subject over dinner last night.