MEDIA SENSATIONALISM & FEAR!
by Sparky Taft
May 5, 2020
As a media professional, it is disgusting to me how TV (and newspapers) sensationalize news, creating FEAR, which is usually unfounded and unwarranted.
CBS This Morning had the banner line “Staggering” on screen for well over a minute. Most “projections” of disastrous death totals have been factually way, way off. Many, if not most, Americans only look at the headlines and do not follow the entire story.
We call this sensationalism “Yellow Journalism” – intentionally creating FEAR to hype TV ratings or more newspaper readers. DISGUSTING. No wonder most Americans do NOT trust media!!!!
Thank you so much for bringing this up. A quick Google search yields so many of these obscene violations of journalistic integrity:
“9/11 first responder working as EMT: Coronavirus deaths are staggering, it’s like ‘ combat triage'”
“An overweight man once “banned” from getting takeout in his hometown has lost a staggering 280 pounds in a year.”
“Senator Marco Rubio, Small Business Cmte chairman, addresses stunning jobless numbers and gives advice to small businesses…”
“….finished April with its most-watched monthly primetime audience in the network’s history, averaging a staggering 3.7 million…”
“…In the emails sent to employees, CEO Sundar Pichai reportedly said employees would return in a “staggered” way to be cautious….”
“….Oklahoma man who installed secret cameras in ‘staggering’ number of homes gets life sentence.”
By these headlines, it is abundantly clear there is a journalistic integrity problem in modern media. It is mind-blowing as to how such powerful words could be used in a careless, reckless and shameful manner to only advance the fear mongering agenda so rampant in today’s media. Incredibly ridiculous and irresponsible to use such adjectives.
Until you realize those copied and pasted headlines are the first six results when Googling “Fox News Staggering”.
Please do continue to fly across the country in June. When you check into your hotels…..when you go out to client dinners…. make sure you look the staff in the eye and tell them how much you appreciate them being in close contact with hundreds, if not thousands, of people every day.
Then do your best to erase the terrified look you get from those front-line workers in return, realizing how getting America “back to work” is how THEY need get back to work to bolster the 401(k)s of the sloven who grab themselves by the bootstraps to brag about their own travel and view of a golf course from their own condos on social media.
Have a great trip!!!