That’s Entertainment
The Daily starts off the year with a salvo against the blogosphere. “Aren’t we smart enough to know the difference between real news and blog lies or sensationalist drama?” writes Theresa Kennelly. “When blogs satisfy readers’ speculations and news reporters entertain watchers, the desire to turn to other news sources, like responsible newspapers, fades.”
On an unrelated note, we’re going to speculate that Mayor Hieftje is involved in a free-range, cage-free chicken-fighting ring and a sex tape featuring key members of the Planning Commission is about to surface.
I loathe Nancy Grace with every ounce of my being. I used to work in a hotel that had a lobby TV locked into CNN. Every night (I worked 11pm-7am) Nancy Grace came on and reinforced my belief that there is absolutely no need for a 24 hours news network. There’s barely enough news for a 2 hour news network (at least that’s the impression CNN gives me). Let’s jump over to CNN.com…great the headline is whether Phil Spector’s looks affect the outcome of his trial. Seriously, THIS is the top story? If you look under “popular news,” the top headline is “men want hot women, study confirms.” THAT’s news? Again I say, there is no need for a 24 hr. news network, or even a website…sorry…I get a bit work up when I hear the words nancy and grace in the same sentence.
PS Theresa’s cute. Therefore, according to CNN, men must want her. Glad I read that report, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to put those two together.
posted by TD on September 4th, 2007 at 8:54 pm eHeh, I actually like Nancy Grace. I have a whole elaborate theory about why sensationalized crime journalism is not a bad thing, but I won’t go into it.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on September 4th, 2007 at 8:57 pm eI’ve seen the Planning Commission sex tape. “Chicken fighting ring Hieftje” is a member of the Planning Commission.
posted by David Cahill on September 5th, 2007 at 11:48 am eSlander? Sensationalism? Half Truths? That’s MY DOMAIN
http://ypsicitydesk.blogspot.com/
posted by Johnny Action Sapce Punk on September 5th, 2007 at 2:09 pm eI get all my news from “Cops”
posted by Bob on September 5th, 2007 at 3:25 pm eHere’s the letter I sent Theresa yesterday.
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I read and partly agree with the thrust of your column today urging daily newspaper readership.
But you don’t seem to realize that it’s not simply a process of electronic media luring people away from newspapers. Newspapers, in recent years, have been driving readers away.
Over the last few decades, newspapers have been listening to consultants who have been telling them to jazz up their papers with eye-catching features, and cut back on labor-intensive stuff like reporting on local issues. Folks who are interested in local news have had to seek other sources.
I have been reading the Ann Arbor News (print version) almost every day for some seventeen years. I used to think of it as a pretty good paper that was attentive to local news. But no longer. Starting a year ago, a whole lot of reporters have been swept out and not replaced. The amount of local content in the News has plummeted.
Subscribers, like me, are asking each other why we even bother to get the paper any more.
Being a county official, naturally I think county government issues are important. Or, at least, I think the local daily paper should mention what’s going on. The county has been dealing with extremely controversial topics such as jail expansion and shifting the cost of sheriff’s patrols. Some of these controversies have boiled over in county board meetings. But you would never know this by reading the News, because they don’t have enough reporters to cover county board meetings any more.
In the 2004 election, Washtenaw County had contested races for prosecuting attorney, county clerk (including myself), and county commissioner. At least 10,000 students at the University of Michigan were voting in that election. But your predecessors at the Michigan Daily refused to run even one line to inform students about the county races. Not even a list of candidates!
With newspapers defaulting on their responsibilities, is it any wonder that people seeking information about local issues and politics have had to look elsewhere?
Your denunciation of local bloggers rings awfully hollow when “legitimate” journalists are no longer on the job in Ann Arbor.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on September 5th, 2007 at 8:09 pm eLarry,
I agree completely. I learn just as much, or more, from local blogs and other online sources as I do from the AA News. The Detroit papers have really gone downhill as well, and for the same reasons.
posted by Tom Brandt on September 5th, 2007 at 8:36 pm eAAIO, maybe you are right, maybe I don’t loathe Nancy Grace. Maybe it’s her viewers that I loathe. I mean, she’s getting paid, somebody wants it. I suppose if I could surgically remove my conscience, pander to the lowest common denominator, and get paid, maybe I’d do the same thing. That’s not so bad, maybe she’s using it as a springboard to something better. Like Inside Edition. Or Entertainment Tonight. Seriously, who’s to blame, the druggies or the one who provides the drugs? Should I demand that Nancy Grace and her handlers take responsibility for the crap on CNN after 10PM, or should I demand that common people take responsibility for their own desire to find out what Paris Hilton had for dinner her first day in jail? Actually, I think I can answer my own question by saying that whenever someone sat down in the hotel lobby to watch Nancy Grace at 2AM, I had a nearly-insatiable desire to throw my Swingline at them. I would never risk my Swingline on Nancy Grace herself.
posted by TD on September 5th, 2007 at 9:53 pm eI personally think Nancy Grace is hilarious. I don’t watch often, but the night of the diaper-astronaut was classic (camera cut to NG holding rope, pepper spray, a knife, saying, “Ah just wanna to tulk to you…”).
posted by Anna on September 6th, 2007 at 8:17 am eMy cat gets depressed when I use the Ann Arbor News to line his litter box. It’s barely worth peeing on.
posted by Nitro on September 6th, 2007 at 8:33 am eI get each the Detroit and the Ann Arbor at home everyday largely out of habit. But in the five years I’ve lived in Michigan, I’ve seen both of them decline in quality. The has not, in that time, been a very good student newspaper, much less a beacon of quality journalism. Newspapers (or at least the locals) do, as Kestenbaum argues, a thouroughly lousy job at reporting news. In-depth analysis or thoughtful commentary are now completely absent, save the three-day-old reprints. Arrogance and complacency don’t win football games, political campaigns, or readers.
posted by Young Westside on September 6th, 2007 at 8:42 am eSo Hieftje is a chicken fighting Nazi, you say. (Cf. the “Heil Hieftje” posters that Blaine Coleman distributed)
Figures.
posted by David Boyle on September 6th, 2007 at 11:14 pm eI think it’s ironic that the essence of what actually makes Ann Arbor overrated is the type of permanent-loser hipsters that write the posts here on this website. If only this comment itself could become a post, because then this website would become the truly avant-garde, the way you all wish it could be.
posted by Sam on September 9th, 2007 at 10:29 pm e