AM News Radio sucks.
As I was walking to the WAWA this morning, instead of listening to WHYY, which I normally do, on my portable radio ---the weekend schedule is all cooking shows and gardening tips --- I had the local 24-hour news radio station on, KYW. If you want to know why most Americans are so ignorant of what's going on in the world AM news radio is a great place to start. KYW sounds like one of those Clear Channel stations ---they claim their CBS radio ---that gives you weather and traffic every 5 minutes and right-wing propaganda 'round the clock.
This morning for example, there was the story about the Russians having a spy in the U.S. command center in Doha before the war that was supposedly feeding Saddam secrets about the invasion plans. "Russia is no friend of ours" the news reader said. "They've been spying on us!" And that was pretty much all there was to that story. What they left out was the rest of the story, though, which was that most of what the Russians told Saddam was misinformation. In fact, this is basically such a non-story that the NYT put in a little 8 paragraph box below the fold on page A-7.
Another big news story on KYW was about Laura Bush on the Larry King Show (King of the powder puff questions) responding to a "Dear Laura" piece by Sally Quinn in the WaPo telling her she was the only person who could tell boy W. the truth about the problems he faces. The lead-in to the story went something like this: "Laura Bush may be more popular than her president husband, but she doesn't have to make the difficult choices." Maybe, if he ever actually did make the right choices, he wouldn't be so unpopular.
Then there was the news on all the immigration demonstrations around the country on Friday. In case you were wondering why thousand of people are out on the streets in all the major cities it's because, "the protesters are against a law that would make felons out of people who employ illegal immigrants." End of story. Actually what they're protesting against are bills Congress is considering that would, "Make it a felony to be in the United States illegally, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants and erect fences along one-third of the border with Mexico." [NYT] Also, as I've written here before, it would make it a felony to help illegals, potentially turning Catholic Priests and others who provide services to the poor into criminals.
But you don't need to know all that, what you want is a very brief synopsis of the major stories of the day You're a busy mover and shaker and you don't have time for all those confusing facts. Just give us a minute and we'll give you the world. It's as easy as that.
This morning for example, there was the story about the Russians having a spy in the U.S. command center in Doha before the war that was supposedly feeding Saddam secrets about the invasion plans. "Russia is no friend of ours" the news reader said. "They've been spying on us!" And that was pretty much all there was to that story. What they left out was the rest of the story, though, which was that most of what the Russians told Saddam was misinformation. In fact, this is basically such a non-story that the NYT put in a little 8 paragraph box below the fold on page A-7.
Another big news story on KYW was about Laura Bush on the Larry King Show (King of the powder puff questions) responding to a "Dear Laura" piece by Sally Quinn in the WaPo telling her she was the only person who could tell boy W. the truth about the problems he faces. The lead-in to the story went something like this: "Laura Bush may be more popular than her president husband, but she doesn't have to make the difficult choices." Maybe, if he ever actually did make the right choices, he wouldn't be so unpopular.
Then there was the news on all the immigration demonstrations around the country on Friday. In case you were wondering why thousand of people are out on the streets in all the major cities it's because, "the protesters are against a law that would make felons out of people who employ illegal immigrants." End of story. Actually what they're protesting against are bills Congress is considering that would, "Make it a felony to be in the United States illegally, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants and erect fences along one-third of the border with Mexico." [NYT] Also, as I've written here before, it would make it a felony to help illegals, potentially turning Catholic Priests and others who provide services to the poor into criminals.
But you don't need to know all that, what you want is a very brief synopsis of the major stories of the day You're a busy mover and shaker and you don't have time for all those confusing facts. Just give us a minute and we'll give you the world. It's as easy as that.
posted by William Duane at 3:22 PM
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