Broadcast news and pundits fail us

by J Scott Christianson, Columbia Daily Tribune Columnist

Today’s broadcast news channels require a constant feed of stories to fill their 24-hour-a-day time slots. You might think this need for material would have created a great diversity of stories aired on television and radio. With 24 hours to fill, they have the time to cover the stories that would normally go unreported and could explore today’s complex issues in great depth.

But instead, broadcast news media have found an easier way to fill the hours. They simply fixate on one subject at a time and squeeze every last drop out of it, only ending their saturation coverage when something more sensational comes along. It is a cookie cutter formula that they have perfected over decades of covering O.J. Simson, Laci Peterson, Anna Nicole Smith, Britney Spears and, most recently, Don Imus.

Unfortunately, when a real news story like the Virginia Tech shooting occurs, the great broadcasters of our day can’t seem to break out of their habit of ginning up every angle for maximum impact and emotion. Many are covering the Virginia Tech shooting with the same level of dignity and respect that they use when covering a celebrity breakup. Within hours of the ordeal, reporters were tracking down those who had lost loved ones that day, getting them on camera and peppering them with questions like, “Your friend was killed today. How does that make you feel?”

This type of reporting seems less like investigative journalism and more like…