How the “WHY??” Generation Has Changed Mainstream News Media.

From The Book "Please Pass The Pork" Politics, Corruption, and Collusion In Small Town America by Terry G. Bernard.

Chapter 7
Don't Trust "Mainstream" Media

I remember the days of news when the purpose of the media was to report news. It seems that in the past ten years, the role, or more importantly, the role of the media as viewed by the public, has become to tell the public “why” and incident occurred and not “what” incident if any has occurred.

It is important to remember that the role of the media never has been or never will be to tell us “why”. Interestingly, the media does not know why. I reported news for many years before deciding to become an author and never during the investigation of a lead, follow up, or during any other part of the reporting process have ever found out why something happened. Do not sit back on your recliner or sofa and believe what televised media is telling you if they are telling you why something happened. It is important to note that whenever a so-called “expert” is professing his wealth of knowledge upon your senses he always at some point qualifies his statements by saying “of course we are merely speculating”. The press should never speculate. That is not their job.

The two most important factors to remember when considering news coverage are ambiguity and protection of rights. At any point where media starts to speculate on why an incident occurred or why someone did what they did all ambiguity is lost. If a member of the press is speculating on an incident with or without all of the facts he is injecting his opinion into the discussion. How can ambiguity exist with personal opinion involved? It is also important to remember that when protecting the rights of all involved the most important person to protect is not the public, the families of the injured, or even the victims. Where the press is concerned the most important person whose rights has to be protected is the suspect. Now, I know many of you are asking yourself “WHY?” Thank you for making my point for me. What if by some chance the individual at Virginia Tech had been misidentified. What if he had not committed both shootings? Before we even knew how many were dead, and if the rest were safe, the media was speculating “WHY?”. Please note that even after receiving the letters as well as the videos that the Virginia Tech shooter sent to NBC news, none of us nor any of them truly know why he did what he did. Even if he had not taken his own life, would we ever truly know why? Who, What, Where----that’s the news and should still be. Sadly this is not the case.

Remember always, especially when you are upset at a member of the media for not telling you “why” something happened, he does not know, and he never will. And more importantly remember that truly, by definition, it is not his job to tell you. If you want to know “WHAT” ask a real “newsman”. If you want to know “why”, ask Dr. Phil.

In closing of this chapter may I say that the media in today’s society is failing you miserably. They are failing you by giving you what you “want”, and losing sight of what they are responsible for. And please notice, that during the writing of this I never asked “why?” But without speculation, and with ambiguity you know why.