Like many Americans, I tuned out to broadcast news years ago. But everyone once in a while I catch a glimpse of what’s being broadcast.
This morning at the gym I caught a CNN headline Dem Rep Confronted Colleague to Mask Up Told to "Kiss My A**”. The sound wasn’t on, but I think they were interviewing the victim of the verbal assault. Here’s the accompanying article.
Note that this is prime viewership hours. People often tune in while eating breakfast or getting ready for work to get a quick sense of the news and weather. This was a full segment.
How do you even characterize these types of segments?
The article states what happened by quoting a string of tweets made by the victim. Then it states that offender apologized and the victim accepted the apology. The remaining 2/3 of the article consists of quotes other people said that the offender should apologize and how unacceptable it is.
It’s difficult to characterize a news segment like this. But according to the victim of the “verbal assault”, its “a high profile insult” that required a “high profile response”:
Beatty said in a statement later Tuesday that she accepted the apology, writing, "This was a high profile insult and it required a high profile response. I accept Rep. Rogers' public apology and I am now moving on to the urgent priorities of my constituents and the Congressional Black Caucus."
So what category of news would this fit into? It’s has undertones of politics since its related to a contentious policy. But it’s not really political news. The article (and I assume the TV segment) isn’t focused on policy.
It’s not science reporting as there’s no discussion about effectiveness of masks or Covid policy more generally .
It’s not really a crime-beat. She calls it a physical and verbal assault (he poked her to get her attention), but it’s not exceptional and I don’t think she’s pressing charges.
It’s not entertainment as I imagine most people (myself included) had no idea who these people were before reading the article.
It’s a new kind of thing. I don’t know if its meant to drive some kind of agenda or policy or just rile people up. The article also mentions the Congressional Black Caucus 4 times just for good measure, although no one claims it to be racially motivated.
All I know is that its not news worthy. And it’s baffling that a major news network would devote 7 minutes of their prime time viewership to this exchange.
This isn’t my first time seeing a bizarre headline at the gym. This was from 2 weeks ago, also around the same time.
What is that? That’s a bizarre headline. It could have been about transmissibility of Covid to household pets, but the headline is just so macabre. Hamsters for slaughter…
You don’t need to watch broadcast news regularly to notice these things. Just reading the headlines is enough. People definitely notice:
But it’s not the worst thing! I mean yelling at old Black ladies and killing hamsters is bad, but is it the worst thing that’s happening today? Probably not. So what the hell is driving this?
I often hear grievances about cable news that boil down the problem to a 7 minute format with commercial breaks. But if this is what they spend their 7 minutes on, then the problem is bigger than I imagined.