What The Media Should Shut Up About

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Aristotleded24
What The Media Should Shut Up About

A while back on EnMasse, we had a thread where we could vent our frustrations about certain things that the media was droning on and on about. I thought I would bring back that tradition here, and see how it goes. Here are my picks:

Donald Trump. Seriously, just shut the fuck up about him. We understand that he is a reprehensible human being, he demonstrates that all on his own, we don't need the media to tell us this. This is especially frustrating because any attention that Trump gets only hepls Trump. The media has also not only done a bad job of reporting on why so many of Trumps policies are bad, but in many cases supports the underlying premise. One example I can think of off the top of my head is not challenging the dominant narrative that North Korea is a threat to the continental US, and then they act all shocked when Trump threatens nuclear war on Twitter. Seriously media, either do your job properly or get out of the way.

Hillary Clinton. She lost the election, and by insisting on being back in the spotlight, she is confirming suspicions that it's all about her, and it's causing serious damage to the issues she claims to care about. It's true that the media doesn't have direct control over what she does. What they do have control over is the decision to give her a platform. Just because Clinton says or does something, doesn't automatically make it newsworthy. It is especially frustrating because beneath her public face, you can sense that she expects to be treated like royalty and she becomes visibly agitated when she is challenged on that point. Election 2016 is done, she lost, please let the country move on.

cco

Aristotleded24 wrote:

This is especially frustrating because any attention that Trump gets only hepls Trump.

A while back I made a personal decision not to watch almost any coverage of Trump (I made an exception for comedy shows, as I need something to maintain my sanity, but it gets more difficult every week). I no longer watch political shows live-but-for-a-commercial-delay; I'll wait until they're over and start watching then, so I can fast-forward through the entirety of any segment that irritates me, with anything Trump-related at the top of that list. The fact that most of the coverage is anti-Trump is beside the point. Trump coverage, both pro- and anti-, is an eyeball magnet and therefore a profit machine for the media, and I'm done participating in the same phenomenon that got him elected in the first place.

Of course, given my similar attitude toward news about the monarchy and other vapid celebrities, there will probably come a time in the near future where all I can watch is the weather.

Unionist

The weather is just as bad.

Aristotleded24

Unionist wrote:
The weather is just as bad.

I know! It's one thing if the weather is that extreme that a weather statement needs to be issued to protect vulnerable people, for example opening warming centres for homeless people during a cold snap or cooling centres for them during a heat wave. But seriously, does the news need to report every instance of snow that happens in major Canadian cities between the months of November and March, when we come to expect snow to fall during this time of the year? Is it particularly newsworthy that it might snow in Montreal or Ottawa in January or February?

And the worst part of that is that when they do report on extreme weather, they don't even link it to climate change!

Aristotleded24

cco wrote:
Of course, given my similar attitude toward news about the monarchy and other vapid celebrities, there will probably come a time in the near future where all I can watch is the weather.

I know this is dated, but:

Kim Kardashian

Pogo Pogo's picture

My blood pressure goes up when the Media talks about the stock market hitting record numbers. Is there anything more stupid? In the same vein I hate to hear a reporter demonstrating with their story how little they understand about a subject.

Glorifying our military also gets under my skin. Particulary sports events which are not news media, but I have to add as it really gets under my skin.

bagkitty bagkitty's picture

Well, we still have almost three months to go before the end of the first (fiscal) quarter - should I wait until then to come back and rant about the media breathlessly reporting on, yet again, record profits from the banking industry... or possibly their reports on share values of one of them dropping, yet again, because of their failure to break their previous record profits?

Mr. Magoo

1.  Any entertainment industry couple that is referred to using a portmanteau of their names.

2.  Heartwarming stories about soldiers.

3.  The children of the famous.

4.  The polls for an election that's only 154 weeks away.

5.  Anyone's "baby bump".

6.  Canada's proud Olympians and their struggle to reach the podium (including, but not limited to, 5am practices, self-doubt and an inflamed rotator cuff).

7.  #AlmostAnythingFeaturingAHashtag

8.  Hockey.  Every single thing.  To make it fair, let's go with all sports except badminton.

9.  What Drake's up to these days.

10.  The MMIW inquiry (unless it's NOT a story about the most recent resignation)

bagkitty bagkitty's picture

@Magoo:

Can you stretch that to include "11. Stories regarding drivers in the Lower Mainland and/or the GTA unable to handle winter driving conditions"?

Unionist

Aristotleded24 wrote:

I know this is dated, but:

Kim Kardashian

I never have.

Mr. Magoo

Quote:
I never have.

Is that like "I can't even"?

Sineed

Twelve posts in and nobody's mentioned Doug Ford?

Unionist

Mr. Magoo wrote:

Quote:
I never have.

Is that like "I can't even"?

No - in this context, it meant "I never have... dated... Kim Kardashian."

Mr. Magoo

One more "un-done" on the bucket list.

NDPP

[quote=Pogo]

My blood pressure goes up when the Media talks about the stock market hitting record numbers. Is there anything more stupid? In the same vein I hate to hear a reporter demonstrating with their story how little they understand about a subject.

 

[quote=NDPP]

Global Markets Plunge As Dow Records Biggest One-Day Point Fall

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/02/06/stoc-f06.html

"Wall Street stocks plunged yesterday amid a global market sell-off. At the end of the day, the Dow Jones was down by 1,175 points, its biggest one-day fall in history, after a day of violent moves..."

Unionist

NDPP wrote:

Pogo wrote:

My blood pressure goes up when the Media talks about the stock market hitting record numbers. Is there anything more stupid?

 

NDPP wrote:

Global Markets Plunge As Dow Records Biggest One-Day Point Fall

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/02/06/stoc-f06.html

"Wall Street stocks plunged yesterday amid a global market sell-off. At the end of the day, the Dow Jones was down by 1,175 points, its biggest one-day fall in history, after a day of violent moves..."

Nice one, NDPP!

Is it possible that the media organized that Dow drop just out of spite against Pogo's post?

6079_Smith_W

Certainly it can't be because they wanted to burst the cheetofaced shitgibbon's balloon after his speech last week.

Thing is, you only have to look at the last few years (never mind the full nine that the DOW has been climbing) to put this in perspective. Reading too much into this one way or another is kind of like those who claim global warming can't be real because we are having a cold winter.

https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/djia

I'm actually with Pogo on this one. The market is bigger; of course the fluctuations are also going to be bigger. So yeah, it is stupid. Though not nearly as stupid as the recent trend of announcing that every full moon is some special one that we haven't seen for 150 years.

Caissa
Aristotleded24

In some cases where there is a high profile criminal trial there may be news articles talking about "what the jury didn't hear." It's irrelevant because it's not going to have any impact on the jury's decision, and if the jury didn't hear about it then there was a reason for it. Does that mean there aren't cases where there is critical information the jury missed that would have an impact on their decision? No, but the standards of evidence for criminal trials exist for a reason, and it's up to the defense and crown attorneys to make sure that the evidence they need is presented in court.

WWWTT

Here’s an odd thread. I don’t believe the corporate media has the masses best interests at heart when anything beyond weather traffic are reported. And they probably only report those two just to hook you in to their long winded propaganda or diversion (Kate Middleton/Justin Trudeau). I forgot which is which. 

Michael Moriarity

The Columnist

Aristotleded24

With summer construction season upon us, am I the only one who is tired of hearing stories about one business owner or another who is being inconvenienced by it? I understand that it must be frustrating, however it seems that construction goes in this reliable sequence:

A section of street is selected for construction

Construction takes place

Business and the customers are inconvenienced

The construction is finished

Life goes back to normal

Am I missing something here? Construction and repair is just one of those things that needs to be done. Is the fact that it's inconvenient particularly newsworthy?

Unionist

Aristotleded24 wrote:

With summer construction season upon us, am I the only one who is tired of hearing stories about one business owner or another who is being inconvenienced by it? I understand that it must be frustrating, however it seems that construction goes in this reliable sequence:

A section of street is selected for construction

Construction takes place

Business and the customers are inconvenienced

[size=20]The construction is finished[/size]

[size=20]Life goes back to normal[/size]

Am I missing something here? Construction and repair is just one of those things that needs to be done. Is the fact that it's inconvenient particularly newsworthy?

In Montreal, two of those steps are generally missing. I'll let you guess which ones.

But yeah, I'm sick and tired of the "business is inconvenienced" mantra.

6079_Smith_W

You could probably file that next to car drivers complaining about bike lanes.

Misfit Misfit's picture

Related to Pogo's stock market reporting, I am sick and tired of reporters explaining why the stock market rose or dropped.

for instance, if a typhoon hits Malaysia, they will say that the stock market dropped because of the typhoon in Malaysia.

if a crowd of people demonstrate in Washington D.C. And the stock market drops, the news media will say that the market dropped because of the political uncertainty in Washington.

progressive17 progressive17's picture

I find the stock market drops because there are more sellers than buyers. And it rises for the opposite reason.

If you want the media to say different things, you can pay for it. Business pays for the media, and you passively watch it. It is quite simple to switch it off.

Left Turn Left Turn's picture

progressive17 wrote:
I find the stock market drops because there are more sellers than buyers. And it rises for the opposite reason.

[thread drift]I like to think of the stock market as a giant self-fulfilling prophecy. When the mass of the people think the stock market is going to go up, we tend to get more buyers than sellers. Conversely, when the mass of the people think the stock market is going to go down, we tend to get more sellers than buyers[/thread drift]

WWWTT

Windchill and humidex. Today's going to be such and such degrees but with the humidex/windchill it's going to feel like this much.

Hey weather report, take your humidex/windchill and shuv it where the sun don't shine! Stop telling me how "I'm supposed to feel"

cco

Personally, I tend to agree with Lewis Black on that one. If it feels like -25, it's -25 (unless you're, say, running a scientific experiment in the back yard). In his words, "I don't need to know what the temperature [i]would[/i] be if conditions were perfect."

WWWTT

I guess you are more than one person or you’re a shapeshifter. 

People who have a better tolerance for cold notoriously can not stand the heat and Vise versa

i remember one winter visiting Shenzhen southern China. It was around 19-20’C during the day. I was wearing a t shirt and jeans. Locals were wearing winter jackets hats and gloves!

In China there isn’t a lot of this stupid crap that insults people’s intelligence to only sensationalize the ordinary 

the addition of humidex/windchill to weather reports never helped anyone beyond mediocre trivial conversations. It has only made environment Canada look like a joke!

Misfit Misfit's picture

Mellinials don't even know what the temperature is anymore. If it's winter and you ask for the temperature they will quote you the windchill. If it is summer and you ask them they will give you the humidex.

if the windchill is -39 but the temperature is -19, the weather reporters could just as easily say -19 with strong winds.

or in the summer quote +32 with humidity instead of humidex of 44.

it is very bad if people don't understand temperature anymore. 

Thwre was a woman staying at our place and she plugged her car in and it was only -2. I unplugged her car and she got mad because the windchill was -19. I told her that windchill is not the same thing as temperature and that temperature is the only factor you go by when plugging in a car. I told her that windchill will only make the car cool down to -2 faster. It went right over her head.

humidex and windchill  are the very worst things that the weather department could have introduced to Canada.

6079_Smith_W
WWWTT

@ 6079 Smith

Lol! Nice try. Actually it’s more like a feeble attempt that back fired on you. Maybe you can try demonizing China in some other thread? Good luck with that one!

6079_Smith_W

I'm not the one who took this in that direction by claiming that there is nothing in Chinese media that is sensationalist and insults people's intelligence. Sorry, but your implication that they are somehow above all that is nonsense.

If you are making an accusation about motive if I really wanted to go there I would have posted a link to that detergent ad.

Or pointed out that many of us would be in jail if we posted some of the things we do in that country.

 

WWWTT

Ah the detergent ad. LOL! Confusion between sexual preference with racial belittling? Maybe, but clearly way too close too controversial to allow!

They pulled the ad and apologized. Proper thread to discuss so I will!

https://www.adweek.com/creativity/everyones-angry-racist-chinese-ad-it-s...

https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/02/opinions/china-racist-detergent-ad-opinio...

And finaly this link

http://en.people.cn/n3/2016/0530/c90000-9065245.html

 According to the Advertisement Law of the People’s Republic of China, any ethnic, racial, religious, or sexual discrimination is not allowed in commercials.

Hey look at that hey! According to Chinese law, this company (probably privately owned but not yet sure) were actually breaking the law! But accordind to 6079 Smith, these adds are the regular norm

lagatta4

The traffic reports are corporate in that they normalise carcentric planning.

You say this on bourgeois media and some carhead immediately chimes in with the need for ambulances and delivery vehicles. While both, as well as maintenance vehicles and the trucks driven by tradespersons, also exist in Amsterdam and Copenhagen. But the majority either take the (excellent) public transport or cycle, and a luck few can walk to their work or other destination. Which actually makes traffic more fluid for those who actually have to drive.

The 141 (Jean-Talon E.) line is the busiest in Montréal. Yet the powers-that-be have been stalling on extension of the blue line for 30 years. Even if it went a single station east, to Pie-IX, that would have been a great relief.

And the effing CAQ is against the Pink Line, while the current orange line is utterly saturated southbound from at least Jean-Talon and probably from Jarry.

6079_Smith_W

Not actually what I said WWWTT.

But as is pointed out in the articles I did post, they aren't free from sensationalist content, even if their mainstream media does its best to keep a lid on controversy about domestic matters.

 

6079_Smith_W

On topic though, this kind of stuff. $700K is one tenth of what that city pays to clean up one major snowfall. Their annual snowfall budget is over $33 million. So if they are going to throw out numbers, a bit of perspective might be in order:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/southwest-transitway-repairs-1.4...

 

kropotkin1951

WWWTT wrote:

People who have a better tolerance for cold notoriously can not stand the heat and Vise versa

i remember one winter visiting Shenzhen southern China. It was around 19-20’C during the day. I was wearing a t shirt and jeans. Locals were wearing winter jackets hats and gloves!

I gather despite being Chinese they were not about to move to Harbin anytime soon. Our Canadian Caribbean community is one that loves to tell stories about peoples impressions on arriving in Canada for the first time during the winter.

Michael Moriarity

I agree with those who think the "adjusted" temperatures are bogus, and it appears that so does Randall Munroe. Today's xkcd:

Mr. Magoo

I don't find either humidex nor windchill confusing, nor useless.

And it's better than having to try to calculate some sort of wet bulb temperature to tell you what heat + humidity will be doing to your body.

Quote:
it is very bad if people don't understand temperature anymore.

And a bit inexplicable.  I'm not sure what the challenging part of "... but feels like" is.

If someone says "the average time spent in the dentist's chair is 30 minutes, but it feels like 60", I get what they're saying there.

Timebandit Timebandit's picture

I really could do without another think piece about the psychological makeup of the Trump supporter. Or any more journeys into Trumpland red states. Srsly, let's just move on and stop giving these trolls any oxygen.

Misfit Misfit's picture

Magoo,

if you ask for the temperature and the person quotes you the humidex or the windchill and they don't know the difference then you have a problem.

if it is -23 and there is a strong wind, i at least know to bundle up or better yet to not go outside unless I absolutely have to. I don't need a windchill number to understand the difference.

a windchill number and -23c with a wind are the same thing. I understand what the temperature is and millenials do not.

 

6079_Smith_W

There are degrees of it though. Back when they calculated wind chill in watts/square meter (the 70s) they wouldn't display it as temperature, but as how long it took exposed skin to freeze.

http://www.rescuedynamics.ca/articles/windca.htm

voice of the damned

Timebandit wrote:

I really could do without another think piece about the psychological makeup of the Trump supporter. Or any more journeys into Trumpland red states. Srsly, let's just move on and stop giving these trolls any oxygen.

I guess it depends what they have to add to the discussion. I once read a piece that analyzed Trump's supporters as being rural people who had been partially urbanized by television, hence their seemingly anomalous feeling of connection with a slick-talking Manhattan real-estate tycoon. Prior to Reality TV, someone like that would have seemed like a totally foreign entity to them.

The writer also argued that, rather than having the traditional conservative's romanticized view of rural and small-town life, the people drawn to Trump were generally aware that things were kind of messed up in their communities(again, as a result of TV showing them other ways-of-life), and were looking to Trump, as an outsider, to fix that.

It was a bit of a departure from the usual canards about what motivates rural conservative voters, so I thought it was interesting for that reason.

6079_Smith_W

Interviews with grieving family members who think sentences weren't harsh enough, for no reason at all other than no sentence would be harsh enough. That isn't news; it is exploitation.

 

Timebandit Timebandit's picture

voice of the damned wrote:

Timebandit wrote:

I really could do without another think piece about the psychological makeup of the Trump supporter. Or any more journeys into Trumpland red states. Srsly, let's just move on and stop giving these trolls any oxygen.

I guess it depends what they have to add to the discussion. I once read a piece that analyzed Trump's supporters as being rural people who had been partially urbanized by television, hence their seemingly anomalous feeling of connection with a slick-talking Manhattan real-estate tycoon. Prior to Reality TV, someone like that would have seemed like a totally foreign entity to them.

The writer also argued that, rather than having the traditional conservative's romanticized view of rural and small-town life, the people drawn to Trump were generally aware that things were kind of messed up in their communities(again, as a result of TV showing them other ways-of-life), and were looking to Trump, as an outsider, to fix that.

It was a bit of a departure from the usual canards about what motivates rural conservative voters, so I thought it was interesting for that reason.

Sure. But it's been done about a hundred times over now and most of them don't add anything to the conversation. What I particularly hate, though, are the pieces where some middle-class writer who has never lived in the boonies goes out and finds that they're perfectly pleasant people in spite of their bigotries (said writer is white, therefore treated well), which, btw, aren't really their fault and we should be sympathetic to their worldview.

Not that I'm not sympathetic to their plight - opiod crisis, poor education and unemployment and a host of other problems are plaguing the white working class. But you can't condone the racism and hate. I'm sick of hearing the apololgies for it.

Timebandit Timebandit's picture

6079_Smith_W wrote:

Interviews with grieving family members who think sentences weren't harsh enough, for no reason at all other than no sentence would be harsh enough. That isn't news; it is exploitation.

 

Yes.

Mr. Magoo

Just curious, Smith:  was this prompted by the "10th anniversary" (!!) of Tim McLean being killed on that bus, and his parents still hating Li?  I saw that the other day -- the most recent slow news day, I guess.

6079_Smith_W

Not the anniversary, But the initial coverage was a prime example. Especially when you consider that many of those same media never bothered to mention that Li wasn't even diagnosed, so it wasn't a case of someone irresponsibly going off meds.
And that it got whipped up to the degree that the province even overruled doctor's decisions to let Li walk around the institution grounds.
Yeah. I don't blame the family for feeling the way they do, but the media were just vultures IMO.

Mr. Magoo

I guess I don't really blame the media.  When the story is "man bites dog's head clean off!!" they're going to run it.  Wouldn't matter if Li was on his meds, off his meds, was never on meds or took some other guy's meds.  Decapitation and cannibalism make the news.

Me, I'd be ready for his mom to move on.  It's not my place to tell her she should or anything.  But I hope on the 20th anniversary she's not still bitter and resentful because Vince Li got to see a rainbow.

I would agree, however (as I kind of implied) that there was probably no great reason to revisit this just because some even number of years has elapsed.

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