As the eulogies for Walter Cronkite start to pour in, one quote of his that someone mentioned has stayed with me.
Apparently, he said “News should not be about what people want to know, but what people need to know”.
Very true, and you can see from that thought that he belonged to a different generation.
Today’s news, at least on TV, is all about giving people what they want – whether it is celebrity gossip, prioritizing unimportant local news over important international events, or ignoring news from the world of science completely.
nittin
Sujatha
shyam
Anonymous
Yup truly accepted.. especially when i hear crap in the Indian New channels
And at times, today’s news is all about cramming bilge down our throats and convincing us that’s what we should want…the only good newsreader seems to be the one who is dead today.
Do “we” “pay” well enough to those who provide us with what we “need to know”? No, “we” “pay” far better to those who provide us with what we “want to know”. Don’t put the blame only on the news providers. News consumers are equally responsible.
He nailed it on the head, didn’t he?