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November 29, 2005
A longer needle. Is that all it takes to cure what ails us?
At a Radiological Society of North America meeting today, doctors debated the medical necessity of affixing longer needles to their syringes when administering vaccines or other intramuscular injections to obese patients. This unsightly epidemic has spread, it seems, to the point where a good two-thirds of an injection failed to reach muscle tissue.
This study focused mostly on injections aimed at one’s posterior –– when perhaps researchers should have aimed higher and focused on the fat that threatens to keep real news from reaching our brains.
Just a little more than a week ago, a local television network ladled gravy between the collective ears of the metro area with the announcement it was going to change the format of one of its morning programs from something less “newsy” and more “infotainment.” Companies, special interests, experts, spice salespersons, all will have the opportunity to appear on this show when it debuts, provided they pony up the dollars. In more coarse words, viewers will be treated to 26 minutes of pay-for-play.
My inner news prude screams, “Outrageous! A cardinal sin of the airwaves, usually saved for voids on cable.” As I drew a breath to protest, I stopped. Then I watched “Good Night, and Good Luck.” This brief film that retraces the steps of a network news team to take on an unpopular subject reminded me that, really, isn’t money the thing that has driven most of what we call newsworthy? Maybe not out in the open, but certainly in a number of closed-door meetings.
Have news viewers become so laden with this mental fat that this concept will take off? It may have already, in other markets. Viewers have done little to discourage this. At the end of a burdensome day, most of us would crave a bit of fluff; we asked, and the networks (and their sponsors) have gladly provided.
Our news appetites are supplemented more and more by the empty calories of information that entertains more than it informs. What does this mean for real, ugly news that reporters or networks may not want to pursue? Mary Poppins’ patented spoonful of sugar won’t help.
Looks like we might need a longer needle ourselves.
Sarah Voigt
Posted by Sarah Voigt at November 29, 2005 9:07 AM