Posted: Sat Sep 8 2001
Americans Decry Shoddy, Sensationalistic Reporting!!!!!

A shocking new report says Americans everywhere are calling, writing, and emailing news outlets with a simple request, "Stop making us watch this crap!"

The report, produced by the The OnlineNewspaper Gazette's Center for New and Shocking Reports, says that the vast majority of Americans are fed up with the way events are portrayed in the news.

The report singles out a viewer from Tennessee who, after the 40th hour of CNN's Columbine coverage titled Columbine: We'll Show You Dead Kids... Over And Over Again, decided to turn his TV off, "I just couldn't stand it anymore."

For a more recent example, the report points to the Condit/Levy issue. Nearly everyone is turning off their TVs until, as one viewer puts it, "...actual facts turn up. I mean, how many times am I supposed to look at a bunch of cops looking around a park?"

Other viewers are echoing the same sentiment, "When they put Levy's parents on TV, that was it for me. Everyone I know refused to watch it. The ratings must have been terrible."

While most news outlets have denied they receive any negative calls, FoxNews is widely publicizing the report, and have even devoted a segment to it: "Have Americans had enough? Hear the shocking sound bites on FoxNews."

The report's closing summary seems to speak for many today: It seems that while most Americans prefer facts and evidence to rumor and suspicion, Big News is producing only the latter... or former... whichever one was the "rumor and suspicion" one.