I think there is a market for a news program that stays away from celebrity gossip

[Quixote1818]

I have nothing against Anna Nicole and I don't have too much problem with news programs reporting about her if it helps them get ratings, even though I think they over do it big time. With all that said, isn't there a market for a News Program that markets them self as a "serious" news outlet with NO celebrity gossip?

I would think such a program would be turned to first when important news happens. If they handle there reputation right they could get a big chunk of the news audience.

Anna Nicole and gossip news will always be with us but can't we have a place to go to get away from news that lacks real importance?

[Robbien]

1. The problem with real news is that it is such a problem

The right wing has a coordinated attack machine which will continuously beat down each and every news item.

Every situation has to be slanted rightward, if not, all faxes, email, phones will be flooded with complaints. All faxes, email, phones of advertisers will be flooded with complaints. It will not stop.

[SharonAnn]

2. Sigh, that used to be CNN. In 2001 it became ACATT (All Chandra All The Time)

and I knew that it had changed. And it's never gone back to being a news channel. Now it's entertainment info., celebrity stories, scandals, basically tabloid stuff.

What a shame. The once proud CNN used to actually have reporters around the world who reported news. Now I guess there is no news. At least there are no reporters.

[LSparkle]

3. NewsHour with Jim Lehrer / PBS

I didn't watch last night, but I'd be surprised if they mentioned her death.

[Quixote1818]

4. I mean a 24 hour news program. But you are correct about the Jim Lehrer hour. nt

[magellan]

8. We don't have a 24-hour news program, do we?

The cable corporate media go to reruns and crap at night (well, they're crap all the time, but they rerun their crap). The only 24-hour tv news program I'm aware of is provided by the BBC, and it's not available here. YET. I hear they're looking at coming to the US market, a move I'm wholly supportive of. It would be nice to get some real news.

[jannyk]

5. We used to have NWI...

(News World International) until Al Gore and friends turned it into a CNN/MTV hybrid - Cuurent. I adore Gore but he removed the only really serious world news channel and replaced it with twentysomething wannabes - I still hold it against him.

[Liberal In Texas]

6. The news of, and mystery surrounding the death of a well known person, is not gossip. n/t

[Quixote1818]

7. It's close enough. nt

[Missy M]

10. You're right, it's news....

I watched the news conference about the autopsy, there was commentary after and then they want on to other news. They talked about Iraq, Obama and his official announcement on running for the presidency tomorrow, 100 inches of snow around Oswego, NY and much more. It wasn't Anna Nicole all that time.

[A Simple Game]

13. It may not be gossip, and it may be newsworthy at first.

But when Fox and CNN, etc. try to fill 24hr. with speculation, conjecture, and hyperbole seemingly without end about the death and it's circumstances, it becomes gossip.

I am assuming they are spending way too much time on the subject, I don't watch them very much anymore.

[fwiff]

9. I agree. I wish Countdown was like that.

Or at least look at it from an outside 'social phenomenon' perspective.

[Hekate]

11. It's called PBS: News Hour w/ Jim Lehrer, Washington Week in Review, NOW...

Support your local Public Television Station.

I'd love it if Keith Olbermann would keep celebrity gossip strictly to his "Keeping Tabs" segment and not let it leak into the rest of the program. And if Keeping Tabs got smaller.

Hekate

[edbermac]

12. BBC America?

They're pretty straightforward, though they may devote a half minute to this type of story.

[Bluebear]

14. I just don't regard her death as "gossip"

Yes, all the machinations of who the father is, all the ongoing tripe...but her untimely death being reported yesterday for a couple hours was not inappropriate.

[Cleita]

15. Remember back in the days when celebrity gossip took five

minutes of the nightly news somewhere near the end of the broadcast usually after sports? There were ladies like Rona Barrett or Cindy Adams who exclusively reported these stories. The "real" journalist anchors and reporters didn't do either sports, celebrity gossip or items like restaurants to go to and other non-news reporting.

[blm]

16. Exactly. Fix the media and we can fix this country by stopping the fascists.

.

[MonkeyFunk]

17. Unfortunately

there isn't a very large market for such stuff.

If they do an hour on Anna Nicole Smith, and an hour on economic development in the Amazon basin, the Anna hour would get a helluva lot more viewers.

The problem isn't that they feed us crap. It's that we WANT to be fed crap, and they oblige.

If there was, in fact, a good market for non-stop "solid" news, you can be sure somebody would already be providing it.

[KoKo]

18. There used to be one....National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting...but

the Repugs have chipped away and forced people on their boards and cut their funding so that that ONE BEACON OF LIGHT...is now dimming. AND! Bush's new Budget CUTS THEM FURTHER....The Right Wing will give Donations to make up the difference along with the Corporatists, though. But it will only mean that both move further Rightward. :-(