During the summer of 2010, as commentators at Fox, CNN, and MSNBC were arguing, they referred to their own arguments as “trench warfare” and “hand-to-hand fighting.” Real soldiers would doubtless dismiss such descriptors as attempts by children to count as adults—as something more. The soldiers would be correct, of course. Insulting or criticizing another person does not constitute fighting in the sense of warfare. Someone at MSNBC calling someone at Fox a racist does not come close to shooting someone with a rifle or even slugging someone with one’s fist. The protesters in Libya who were being shot at by their own government in February, 2011, would shake their heads in disbelief in hearing of the "war" among media personalities.
Lest it be objected that this matter is insignificant, the propensity of the media “personalities” to over-reach has, I submit, dominated their depiction of news for years. For example, they use “crisis” far too often. To be sure, a crisis really did exist in September, 2008 on the Thursday evening in which Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson told congressional leaders that unless they showed some intent to act, there would not be a financial system by the following Monday. This is what it means to be in a crisis mode. To call the BP oil in the gulf a crisis more than two months after the explosion (and weeks after the well had been capped) a "crisis" pales in comparision; hence, it is thus a case of the media over-reaching.
By its very nature, a crisis is short-term. The protest in Egypt, for example, during the Arab Spring quickly reached a do or die point. Such is crisis mode. So too, when the planes shot at the protesters in Libya; the resulting turmoil, which can only be sustained as such for a brief period before a decision has to be made one way or the other, instantiated a crisis mode. For republicans or democrats in Congress to refer to budget talks as though they were at a crisis utterly pales by comparison, even if non-essentials in government might be temporarily shut down. Yet journalists have nonetheless perpetuated the verbal inflation in order to get increased attention, which has its own life besides the obvious bump in ratings that benefit their respective networks. It is the journalist's own ego that is being served just as much as profits. Is there any room for news, especially international beyond Iran, Iraq, Russia, and Israel?
By its very nature, a crisis is short-term. The protest in Egypt, for example, during the Arab Spring quickly reached a do or die point. Such is crisis mode. So too, when the planes shot at the protesters in Libya; the resulting turmoil, which can only be sustained as such for a brief period before a decision has to be made one way or the other, instantiated a crisis mode. For republicans or democrats in Congress to refer to budget talks as though they were at a crisis utterly pales by comparison, even if non-essentials in government might be temporarily shut down. Yet journalists have nonetheless perpetuated the verbal inflation in order to get increased attention, which has its own life besides the obvious bump in ratings that benefit their respective networks. It is the journalist's own ego that is being served just as much as profits. Is there any room for news, especially international beyond Iran, Iraq, Russia, and Israel?
Every presidential address is self-righteously vaunted as critical. The President needs to say X or the sky will fall. No mention is subsequently made of the sky still up there even though the President omitted X. Silently omitted is the accountability on journalists and pundits when they over-reach.
