When this past week began, the 24 hour news channels were already covering a particular Florida trial like flees cover a stray dog. I and many others now know more about that case and the opinions of unassociated people than we know about our elected officials. At the end of the week, a plane crash-landing managed to displace the trial as the top news story, so we went from one insignificant local news story to another insignificant local (more or less) news story. From one item that needs less than a paragraph for the average person to understand to another. Meanwhile a rather important nation in the Middle East goes though an event that will quite possibly affect the entire world for years to come. But, when a new witness takes the stand or another press conference with no new information is announced, guess what is forgotten?
This is the vice of 24 hour news channels; entertainment over information. You see at some point the people in power were told that entertainment sells more ads than information does, even if it is information people tune in to get. The result of this is an unhealthy obsession with news unworthy of most people's time inundating the cycle. Of course it would be almost impossible to transition a news channel back to reporting information pertinent to everyone, as that would require hosts intelligent and competent enough to discuss the news, instead of making jokes that demonstrate their ignorance and yelling at people.
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