Media introspection?

I didn’t want to take even a moment to comment on the ‘balloon boy’ affair at all. Even though (maybe especially because) it’s so hard to ignore, and like other stories of sensationalism-as-news-no-matter-what-human-consequences, keeps getting churned through the news cycles fed mostly by tv talking heads speculating on ‘what it all means’ without realizing it means viewers to them. Or exonerating themselves from blame for their own excesses these sensational stories.

The media aren’t given to true introspection. But print media are sometimes good at examining and criticizing television media, and the LA Times has a few pieces with interesting angles on this burst of fascination over the Heene family.

Like this one, that looks at the larger picture of child exploitation for profit. By their own parents.

“Whatever the outcome, children’s advocates warn that reality-TV producers and news organizations are exploiting children from exotic backgrounds for higher ratings. In the “balloon boy” case, TV news was rewarded for sticking with the story: As the drama unfolded Thursday afternoon, the cable news networks logged ratings roughly double their usual averages, according to the Nielsen Co. Some of the coverage was deemed so crucial it aired without commercial interruption.”

This is getting to be like a freak show, and the children are suffering.

“Falcon seemed to struggle under the media glare, vomiting during live interviews Friday morning with Diane Sawyer and Meredith Vieira.”

The media glare has become so disproportionate to news value, I’m wondering how many participants in the circus realize what they’re party to, on both sides of the tv screen.

“Over and over, footage was replayed (as if somehow it would alter in repetition), interspersed with commentary from various balloon experts. At one point, CNN had the magic map involved, with volume-versus-mass equations going on. It was so absurd that at times Blitzer seemed almost unable to carry on; several times he hesitantly wondered if perhaps the boy wasn’t just hiding somewhere.

“Blitzer, it seems, has actually met a 6-year-old boy, although he too joined the throng wondering if Falcon’s statement on “Larry King” [that they did it for a show] was proof that the Heene family had staged the whole thing.

“But even if it were a hoax, the crime was against all those involved in the search, not against the media that chose to follow the story so relentlessly even after it was clear there would be no money shot of Falcon emerging, unharmed, from the balloon. (Actually, that CNN and MSNBC aired real-time footage of the landing of a balloon, which might well contain the injured or dead boy, raises a few publicity-related questions as well.)”

And that’s disturbing.

Here’s a wise news editor’s take on all this, brief but pointed.

Recalling the real media introspection that took place soon after after 9/11, and the resolution that public concerns would trump ratings, and making the leap to last week’s ‘balloon boy’ “coverage [that] was deemed so crucial it aired without commercial interruption”….John Robinson says this:

“Thank goodness we’re at peace, have full employment and universal health care.”