A Lesson On What IS News, and What is NOT

“But it’s NOT NEWS…”

I remember it so clearly.

I was nearly screaming it at the top of my lungs.

I fought with my news director from 4am to 5am begging her to change our lead story to no avail.

She was leading with “Tabloid Talk Heats Up Over Alleged Clinton Affair” and I was cringing as I had to read the words.

I couldn’t believe our 24-hour news station was leading with a sex scandal alleged in a tabloid. I was disgusted. Baffled. Humiliated.

It took about 24-48 hours before it was all anyone was talking about and the name Monica Lewinsky leapt from the likes of the Washington Post and the New York Times.

It didn’t matter if I thought it was news. It didn’t matter if a mother in Orlando had been murdered that morning or if police had once again swept homeless off the streets of downtown…all that mattered was it was “sexy” and “sexy sells.”

Sexy cost this country millions upon millions of dollars while we all debated what the definition of ‘is’ is and several families lives were changed forever.

So now, every time I see a sex scandal splashed across my tv screen, or main stream media anchors alluding to tabloids…I realize we’re on the path for yet another “sexy” headline to whip news directors into a frenzy and distract for our attention elsewhere.

The MOMocrat love for Elizabeth and John Edwards is no secret. Their activism and contributions to this country inspire us without question. Their marriage, unless subsidized by my tax dollars, isn’t my business.

Maybe you think it’s yours. Maybe you think it speaks to character. Maybe you would never vote for a Spitzer or Craig or Clinton.

Maybe you find all of that more important than today’s real headlines that include:

Police: Killer Targeted Church for Liberal Views

Female Bombers Target Pilgrims

Or how about

White House Projects Record Deficit for 2009

I’m posting this because I do agree with my friend Lee Stranahan. It doesn’t matter what I think is important; the GOP machine will chug and churn and try and turn tabloids into multi-million dollar taxpayer time sucks. They will drag a families' business through the mud and back. They will try and run the news cycle, the spin, and even the private lives of citizens.

It will be a story whether we want it to be one or not, and whether there is currently a reporter in a newsroom screaming ‘But it’s NOT news!!!’ at the top of her lungs. 

It won’t matter of nothing comes of it, if everything comes of it, or if everyone involved is happy and content.

It won’t even matter if none of this is true.

It will be news.

I sincerely hope this is all I ever write on the matter, but I doubt. I sincerely hope there are no ‘legs,’ as they say, to this story.

I sincerely doubt it’s just going to go away.

It might not be news, but it sure is “sexy.”

So I will continue to point out all of the real news going on, while everyone else speculates on tabloids. I will continue to remind people we are at war and people are dying.

I will continue to yell “But it’s NOT news!”

And hope someone listens.

Erin Kotecki Vest, aka Queen of Spain, knows her damn news. And has six Golden Mic Awards to prove it too.

Comments

[Ursula]

Good post.

I wish the media would fecking grow up.

[Karoli]

I was working for CNN interactive at the time. I remember getting a text message from a coworker at the crack of dawn telling me there was a huge breaking story on Clinton and I needed to be ready for the onslaught.

When I discovered what it was, I shrugged, figuring it would die just like the Paula Jones and Gennifer Flowers stories had.

Of course, I was dead wrong. The following months were a blur of trying to balance the now-public use of the term "oral sex" on mainstream tv with the term blowjob all over our message boards. We had paid republican operatives trolling, and those months were, in a word, miserable.

The day of his impeachment I cried for the lost promise, the trivialization of our politics, and the hate that flowed over the phone lines into my keyboard.

Now we have another non-story, and this time my tears are for Elizabeth Edwards, who deserves respect and compassion, not hungry gossipmongers aiming for the destruction of her family and her husband.

As far as I'm concerned, those who are dancing around about this should all have their dicks fall off. Or whatever else they prize.

[Julie Pippert]

Oh wow...I cannot possibly top Karoli's comment; it rocked. So yeah, what she said.

Great post, Erin, so yeah 100% what you said, too.

[jaelithe]

Real news: Obama's public commitment to speak directly with the leaders of so-called "rogue" nations such as Iran may already be yielding fruit. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview with Brian Williams that he thinks nuclear weapons are outdated, and said he wants to communicate more with the U.S., and would welcome and talks with U.S. and U.N. leaders based on "mutual respect, cooperation and justice" and anticipates a positive response by his nation to outreach efforts by the West.

I'm serious: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25884020/

[Stefania/CityMama]

Real news: Bush will leave office with a $490 billion deficit. He entered office with a $128 million surplus. War, foreclosures, record gas prices. Are we really better off? Can we talk about this please?

[cynematic]

Real news: are we taking care of our veterans? A study found that a suicide hotline received calls from over 22,000 veterans in its first year of existence.

"According to a recent RAND Corp. study, roughly one in five soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan displays symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, putting them at a higher risk for suicide. Researchers at Portland State University found that male veterans are twice as likely to commit suicide than men who are not veterans."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/28/suicide-hot-line-received_n_115322.html

[hibikir]

It is not news, and yet two post under this, we see a post about how a mayor got married, and how the writer believes he looks hot.

Time for the heathen to quote Matthew:

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

[jaelithe]

Okay, Hibikir: I have now discovered a proper diagnosis for what ails you. You have NO sense of humor.

[Kristin]

I was a staff member of NOW at the time and remember the meeting in which we actually took time to discuss whether we should become involved in the fight to impeach. As if 21 year old women should be told by anyone, much less other women, who they should become involved with.

Still love NOW, but wish that we had spent some time focusing on other things.

And about the Mayor McHottie post, I just wanted to point out that this is a blog with an obvious and stated bias, not what is supposed to be an objective news source.

[jen]

the deficit projections (and clearly underprojected) are appalling. criminal.

[deb]

there's that whole war thing.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/28/iraq.main/index.html

[francine hardaway]

Until you have a wife dying of cancer you are not allowed to write this story or comment on it. Erin's right. Edwards is not a candidate. He's a private individual trying to hold it together under very sad circumstances. Not our business what that entails.