What can we trust on television news? Eye witness accounts may be accurate or sensationalized. ‘Un-named sources’ have provided the basis for more than we want to believe. The newest one is that the person is an un-named source who can't go on camera because he or she, “is not authorized to speak” which buys the journalist a little more time until a better source is found. Or that we forget.
Shameful when it’s found untrue as well.
I miss the old news. Even as a newsmaker on both sides of the camera in the 80s there seemed to be fewer ‘unnamed sources’. Or you could trust the words of a veteran journalist who always could justify their words and hadn’t let you down before.
Now with more news accounts of entertainer Michael Jackson’s last days, you see how much some media depend on each other's ‘news’.
The doctor was there. The doctor wasn’t there. No one was there.
It's never too early for journalists to review themselves and each other. One says that the ‘family is considering a second autopsy’. Another ‘family is considering asking for a second autopsy'. Another that a second autopsy has been completed. All within an hour. Maybe the confusion is over recycled 'news'.
It was claimed that Jackson's physician had not talked to the family. Now he has an attorney who says that he rode the ambulance to the hospital and even prepared medical personnel for how to break the news to Mrs. Jackson, Michael's mom, because of her heart condition. And that he talked with social workers on how best to break news of his death to the children.
Then the bevy of pathologists trying to string together all of the possibilities of what has caused Jackson’s untimely death.
What will happen to the Jackson children? This one has rights. That one may have limited rights. He may/may not have been the biological parent of two of them.
In the coming months one thing is certain. Millions will likely be expended as some fight for guardianship for the good of the children. Others, possibly fighting for the good of the children and the estate that’s contained.
For sure, the children will come to know just how much their father was disappointed by the media. They’ll know first hand.
Why can’t we all just slow down and wait for the truth? Because sensationalism sells.
Shameful when it’s found untrue as well.
I miss the old news. Even as a newsmaker on both sides of the camera in the 80s there seemed to be fewer ‘unnamed sources’. Or you could trust the words of a veteran journalist who always could justify their words and hadn’t let you down before.
Now with more news accounts of entertainer Michael Jackson’s last days, you see how much some media depend on each other's ‘news’.
The doctor was there. The doctor wasn’t there. No one was there.
It's never too early for journalists to review themselves and each other. One says that the ‘family is considering a second autopsy’. Another ‘family is considering asking for a second autopsy'. Another that a second autopsy has been completed. All within an hour. Maybe the confusion is over recycled 'news'.
It was claimed that Jackson's physician had not talked to the family. Now he has an attorney who says that he rode the ambulance to the hospital and even prepared medical personnel for how to break the news to Mrs. Jackson, Michael's mom, because of her heart condition. And that he talked with social workers on how best to break news of his death to the children.
Then the bevy of pathologists trying to string together all of the possibilities of what has caused Jackson’s untimely death.
What will happen to the Jackson children? This one has rights. That one may have limited rights. He may/may not have been the biological parent of two of them.
In the coming months one thing is certain. Millions will likely be expended as some fight for guardianship for the good of the children. Others, possibly fighting for the good of the children and the estate that’s contained.
For sure, the children will come to know just how much their father was disappointed by the media. They’ll know first hand.
Why can’t we all just slow down and wait for the truth? Because sensationalism sells.
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