Murder, Inc.
Murder and mayhem have their downside. Unless you're in the news business.
 

March 15 2005
Counterbias.com
Steve Horowitz
 

Blood has flowed liberally over the past few days, from the accused rapist in Atlanta who killed four escaping from court to the "quiet, average" guy in Wisconsin who killed seven people and himself at a church service.

Then, to top it off, a 4-year-old in Houston put a bullet through the skull of his younger brother, leaving him in critical condition.

The tragedy. The sorrow. The ruined lives. The ratings.

On Sunday, ABC and NBC led off their evening newscasts (CBS pre-empted its news for college basketball) with the Atlanta killings and subsequent hostage drama. Who was the man? How and why did he do it? What did his neighbors have to say? After lengthy (for network news) reports, they then segued into the Wisconsin shootings, reporting on who the man was, how and why he did it, and what his neighbors had to say.

The two segments were so unsettling that NBC's John Siegenthaler felt obliged to note that the murder rate in this country has actually gone down – by 34 percent – over the past 10 years.

Great, John. Thanks. Now please: more video of that menacing black man in the custody of police.

Death and destruction are good news for The News. There's no messy grey area to get bogged down in, no partisan bickering. Everyone hates menacing black men who take white women hostage. Best of all, reporters don't have to break a sweat doing all that tiring journalistic investigation. The police chief or the D.A. steps up to a podium, the video cameras whir (Note to technophobe self: Do cameras still whir?), the reporters hold microcassette recorders up in the air, and voila – journalism at its juiciest.

In the meantime, the House Majority leader has racked up what may be his fifth ethics violation; Congressional Republicans are considering cutting food stamp programs to protect big agricultural subsidies; the concept of evolution is under attack around the country; and conservatives, led by a two-time fraudulently elected president, are trying to undo the most successful government program in our history because they think that the more Americans align themselves with corporate interests – via private Social Security accounts  – the less we'll fuss when profit-dragging regulations and environmental protections are rolled back.

All that is hard to explain, of course. And time-consuming to look into. And not too exciting to the coveted "American Idol" demographic  – at least compared to bloody shoot-'em-ups.

Not to mention the frenzied howls of "liberal bias!" from the right-wing lie machine whenever "mainstream" journalists try to point out what Republicans are really doing to this country.

If you're in the news business, the choice is simple: blood, guts, imperiled white women and ratings versus hard work, time, expense and noisy protests from the rabid right.

You don't have to be the head of Fox News to figure that one out.

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