It's Wednesday night, and I have about an hour to kill before my 11-2 security shift. I knew I wasn't going to get any work accomplished, so I turned on the television. I channel surf all the way up to channel 71 to find MTV not playing videos, as usual, but "Sorority Life 2." I had to watch it.
I'm chilling there, watching my "Sorority Life" and bam! This program has been interrupted by coverage of the war with Iraq. After seeing the lie . I mean, speech given by President G-dubs (known as George W. Bush to all those not up with the lingo), we got to witness the surprise bombing of Baghdad.
I have a couple problems with the television media's coverage of the war. One is: why do more than five channels choose to broadcast the same damn thing?
The war on MTV isn't any better than the war on CNN. I didn't even check every channel, but I know that ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and MTV were all showing basically the same footage.
It's really great that these news programs are sharing the same footage, which I think belongs to CNN because they are one of the only American news organization left in Iraq, but it's getting a bit ridiculous!
Do you want to know what the highest-rated program was during that Wednesday night's speech? Fox's "American Idol." That's right, even though they weren't on at the same time, more people would rather see Simon bitching than Bush talking.
It tells you something about America's interest in the war, and, frankly, I agree with the stats.
I think the footage of the war with Iraq is going to have a similar effect that the footage of Sept. 11 had on a lot of people. After a few hours of watching the same footage over and over, I just couldn't watch the plane hit the building again. Yet, the news channels showed it again and again and again.
I can't sit and willingly watch the green screen or whatever color it is now. I can't watch those bombs fall, knowing somewhere people are dying. I can't watch a horrific event that has been trivialized to appear as a low-grade action movie or, in the case when the footage is green, an arcade game.
I must admit that I am interested in the events of the invasion of Iraq. As a journalism major and an interested viewer, I want to see many perspectives of what's going on with the war, but the media is not giving that to the people.
Instead, they are showing footage of "surprise attacks," which are no longer a surprise if you are broadcasting the footage all over the world. Even I know that's stupid.
CBS, MTV, NBC and ABC should not be showing the war. Let CNN be the War channel for however long the war lasts. The only reason I singled out CNN is because that's always been their job: news 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week. CNN usually provides the greatest depth of information, and it is that forum in which we should gather information about the war, if we so choose.
Those other channel's can bring me "Survivor," "Sorority Life 2," "Friends" and I couldn't even name a good ABC show, but it's got to be better then repeated war coverage that provides no human compassion or intelligence.
