"Go Away" (Salt Lake Tribune on Lori Hacking and national media)

[Logansquare]

Apologies if this is a dup--it's an excellent commentary on what is wrong with cable news.

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_2389371

"For Fox News, MSNBC and, most disappointing of all, CNN - the Network of Record - to be spending so much time hashing, rehashing and, most of all, speculating on the gory details of this single case is an excellent example of what's wrong with the mass media today.

Every minute spent by Larry King or Fox News on Lori Hacking or Laci Peterson is a minute they don't spend on health care, education, environmental quality, national security, the economy or other real issues that should be the center of public attention, especially in an election year.

A nation full of people who know more about Scott Peterson's defense strategy than they do about Donald Rumsfeld's is not a nation that shows much ability to govern itself."

[lapfog_1]

1. If you are a young white woman, pregnant for the first time

and you name is Luci, LEAVE NOW!

Laci, Lori, AND YOU ARE NEXT!

[pacalo]

2. These are diversionary stories to keep our minds off Dubya's failures...

This didn't seem to be the case when Clinton was president. The media (Republican waterboys) nitpicked every story about him.

I refuse to allow the media to choose the issues of focus; I don't watch/listen to anything having to do with Peterson, Jackson, Bryant, Hacking, yadayadayada.

[antigone382]

7. They're much more than that.

Republicans are licking their chops, hoping that the men in these cases will be convicted of two murders...that of their wives and that of their unborn children. The more precedents set for considering a fetus a human life, the easier it will be to ban abortion one day. They shove these on the public, complete with all the grisly details, to elicit sympathy for the mother and her child, and to silence questions as they slowly erode the freedom to choose.

Edited for spelling.

[Nimrod]

9. I think it was the case with Clinton...

It was just turned around. The media frenzy over Clinton was designed to divert the public from Big Bill's successes.

You don't have to convince anyone they care more about BJ's than the economy, you just have to convince them that everyone ELSE cares more about BJ's than the economy. This is how you undermine an effective administration, hand over the government to your own little puppet dictator, destroy the country for your own gain, and get away with it.

[KurtNYC]

3. In their zeal for sensationalism, they can't resist the name

"Hacking"

They just love to make graphics that say "hacking murder" etc.

[lapfog_1]

4. I'm sure they are disappointed that he shot her

with a .22 caliber rifle, instead of stabbing her to death.

[Cha]

5. The whole of the US newspapers need to get this out on their

front pages. cnn needs to lose ratings or something for them to change from their fauxsux like behavior.

[DemBones DemBones]

6. Good for the Salt Lake Tribune. This sort of thing needs

to be said often. Let the people who want constant repetition of all the gory details get them from a tabloid. Local television news is also at fault. Once we got a satellite, we quit watching the Atlanta news since all Atlanta stations are true believers in "If it bleeds, it leads." Disgusting!

[palomaki]

8. Nation's ability to govern

"A nation full of people who know more about Scott Peterson's defense strategy than they do about Donald Rumsfeld's is not a nation that shows much ability to govern itself."

That's what the Republicans count on!!