The WORDmeister sez: Last week, we showed students Good Night, and Good Luck, George Clooney’s laudatory 2005 account of the impact of Edward R. Murrow (Click here). Perhaps through serendipity, others have thought about Murrow lately, too. Here’s one.
Fight Club, Weather & Botox—Film at 11
“The fact that news has become a product for sale is not new [Editor’s Note: Duh.], nor is the fact that media has [sic] embraced celebrity over content and corporate sponsors over substance, and mindless entertainment over education and illumination. Edward R. Murrow warned of these things in his RTNDA Convention speech in 1958. And now, 54 years later, it echoes with immediacy as though written yesterday.“Television news is an ugly circus of innuendo, gossip and tabloid sensationalism. Whether ABC or CBS or NBC, the news is read by celebrity personalities between self-promotional appearances on late-night talk shows.
“The nightly news is anything but news. Seven minutes of shallowness,* two car chases, the latest celebrity divorce/trial/book/or murder-mystery followed by a feel-good human-interest story. Information, elucidation and perspective are sacrificed for pharmaceutical elixirs of youth and sex, insurance lizards, and the latest in-dash tracking system that monitors and synchs up with your Blackberry/iPhone with a voice that guides your every waking movement and thought. Everything you don't need and can't possibly afford but must have.
“[And] cable news is nothing more than nightly WWE cage matches between hot-air blowhards and giggling snark.”
• Editorial Comment: *But Brian Williams’ evening news on NBC is now a weather show. Gaaah. Don’t get me started….
News from our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• JCOM Scholarships for 2012-13. Deadline: April 2• USU hosts 4th annual regional public relations conference, by Allie Jeppson
• Aggie BluePrint: 5 things you never knew we had on campus, by Lindsay Nemelka
• The Blue Streak: What do students want from their candidates in 2012?
by Matt Skabelund, Katie Carter, Parker Jeppesen, Julia Stock, Jessica Jolley, Adison Pace and Victoria Hepworth
• The Aggie TV News Team (Feb. 22 edition). Bookmark ATV News
• Ancient history not only about cave men, archeologist tells crowd, by Josh Ruggles
• Johnny Cupcakes’ secret to success: Work now, play later, by Tmera Bradley
• Prepare kids for kindergarten by reading to them, teachers say, by Tara Alvey
• Mechanic can get out of his wheelchair, back under cars again, by Steve Kent
• Federal budget cuts threaten Nibley’s Maple View subdivision, by Jessica Wilkinson
• The Blue Streak: Zombies rise again at ‘Science Unwrapped’
• ‘Gender gap’ may be more about motherhood than sex, says sociologist
• ‘Out of Iraq’ to bear witness those affected by war on conflict’s 9th anniversary
• Proposed Rec Center, playing fields depend on $30 student fee vote, by Becca Holliday
PeezPIX by Ted Pease
Catalog here.
HAPPY HOMECOMING! JCOM
Our new home, the $43M USU Agricultural Sciences (and Journalism) Building, is dedicated tomorrow! Pack up all those old clips and get over there!
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