For the first time I can recall since about September 11, 2001, I have been glued to the news regarding the Aurora, Co. movie theater incident.
I've flipped among HLN, CNN, MSNBC, and even FoxNews for almost two straight days now. While these networks have done a decent job in their reporting of the events as they occur (some better than others), their journalism skills are in great need of improvement.
FoxNews was actually very good with today's coverage of the investigation of Holmes's apartment. I don't normally watch FoxNews. Nope, never. CNN and HLN were both doing well at first until they both dropped the ball, and started rebroadcasting loops of CNN's Anderson Cooper's and Piers Morgan's interviews.. and HLN's Jane Valez-Mitchell & Vinnie Politan seemed to speculate for hours while independent media outlets were coming up with new updates by the minute!
Reddit user integ3r has provided to the public (along with hefty assistance from nilicule, shankee, quantumraiders, and dozens of other contributors), the most detailed report of the events -as they happened- as I've ever seen.. for any event, ever. These guys deserve some SERIOUS credit for the unprecedented realistic & thorough journalism work they've put in. (integ3r has already been given tons of credit across the Internets, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.)
The LIVE feed from 9NEWS out of Denver has been top-notch, and I have chosen to watch it over any of the main national media outlets. It is however not online 24/7. Nothing against them - they can only do so much, and what they have done has been incredible!
I have taken the time to post this because as a quasi-journalist myself, I am SICK of the national media, and their lame reporting of extremely important news. I remember how things were during the 9/11 attacks, but I was just beginning to see it then. They did the same thing during the Casey Anthony trial, and they do the same thing whenever there is a major celebrity death.
Something I saw on CNN today: "We are trying very hard to focus only on the victims in this case, and not the individual who chose to take the lives of these victims, blah blah blah.." Not a quote, it's my paraphrased statement. Five seconds later the station posts a picture of James Holmes, and the voice being heard says something of the like: "Who is this James Holmes? We'll be right back with more information about his background, his possible motives, and more details we've just discovered." Again, not a direct quote.
This is my point. Besides the fact that every 2 minutes someone is injecting their own speculation as to "why this, or why that." And it's not only that. The national media is a complete failure because of their inadequacy on the job. Mispronouncing names.. blatantly getting stuff wrong.. FoxNews is still to this minute saying there were 71 victims! "Why would he join a sex site?" is another gem I heard. Why would anyone join a sex site?
Here is the link to the creme of the crop coverage directly from Reddit. They have also provided a blog site with all of it in one place.
This is the definition of journalism.
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