Breaking
News!
Are
there any other two words in the English language that get your heart pumping
quicker than “breaking news”? Breaking news means something happened, something
big, something huge. An assassination attempt? The stock market crashed? Donald
Trump actually got the GOP Nomination? Tom Brady at a speaking engagement days
after the Wells Report was released?
Is
the last one even news, let alone “breaking news”?
According
to many news sources in this country, it is. One Tweet from a local anchor from
a major US city read, “Breaking news. Brady asked about Deflategate tonight.
Declines to comment.” That’s right, Brady not answering a question – which is
to be expected considering the ramifications – was considered “breaking news.”
Breaking news (no air quotes) would have been, “Brady asked about Deflategate,
says “yeah I did it, bitch”, beats reporter to death with his microphone, then
spits in his now empty eye socket.” That’s breaking news. Because he murdered a
man. Even if Brady owned up to it all and cried like he’s listening to Ben
Harper the day after the love of his life dumped him, even if he did all that,
it’s not breaking news. It’s “breaking news.”
Not
to be the get off my yard guy but I remember when news was reserved for the
truly important, meaningful stories. That, and the results of a pig race at a
county fair, if you lived in those more remote places. Then again, in those
days, there were three television news outlets and no internet. One of three
old men in tailored suits would give you the news of the day. There was no CNN,
MSNBC, or FoxNews; no Twitter, Reddit, or Facebook. Three guys. That’s it. No
competition meant no bullshit. No need to draw eyeballs to you. They could
focus on what’s important rather than what’s more popular. Now I sound like
Aaron Fucking Sorkin. See what happens when I get on a rant!
In
2015, news isn’t important to news agencies, or, at least not a priority. Nope,
the priority is to get you, the news consumer, to make one simple action. It
doesn’t matter if you do it by accident or change your mind immediately. All
that matters is that you take this one single action, the same action you are
in the ready position for right now unless this gets more interesting; hand on
the mouse, finger hovering over the left pad, waiting to dive down and…
Click.
It
all started innocently enough. You know the story because it broke on Twitter
immediately. The New England Patriots, cheaters that they are, were being
investigated for illegally deflating footballs during the AFC Championship
game. A blurb for any other team. A nothing story. Deflated footballs? Never
even heard of it.
Then,
Chris Mortensen, oh so eager to break some news, siting the ever reliable anonymous
source, reported that “eleven of twelve balls” the Patriots used were significantly
underinflated. The next day, Deflategate became the lead story. A trusted
journalist reporting that the most infamous franchise in the most popular sport
in America cheated during the playoffs, that was a story. That was breaking
news. If only it were true. Eventually, the truth was revealed, that only one
ball fell under the inflation levels Mortensen mentioned, but, by then, it didn’t
matter anymore. The story had evolved and the specifics of the initial
reporting were irrelevant to the public.
Read
that again: “The specifics of the initial reporting were irrelevant to the
public.” The media stuffed a story down our throats, in our nose, and up our
ass. They looked at every angle but focused only on those that would draw the almighty
click. Far be it to let facts or the truth get in the way of money, of infamy
fame. And, the National Football League, no amateur when it comes to spinning a
story their way[1], played
the media like Hendrix did the Star Spangled Banner. They hung the carrot and the
media outlets clawed each other to get to it, to break the news first. In their
enthusiasm, they didn’t bother to actually fact-check or research the actual
importance of any of these leaks. There’s no time when you’re trying to be the
first to break.
With
each scrap leaked by NFL insiders, the story became bigger and more bloated.
When the media tells you to care about something by pushing story after story,
you begin to actually care about it. Particularly, when the story is about a
celebrity doing something bad. Society loves to knock the high and mighty down
a few pegs (and by a lot, I mean all pegs. We don’t even hide our joy in
watching famous people suffer), and there are few in professional sports who stand
as high-and-mighty as Tom Brady. The media knows this and they exploited it.
So,
we hopped aboard for the wild ride. We learned more about how weather does (or
does not) effect the inflation of footballs. We learned what equipment guys
thought of Brady (not much). We learned that Brady destroyed his cell phone
just prior to the investigation requesting it. (Two points here – first, the
phone, itself, isn’t necessary to get text messages. Second, if you were him
would you trust the NFL to protect that phone, a league with more leaks than
Sonny Corleone at the toll booth?) We learned that “more probable than not” is
just a legal way of saying “we firmly believe he did it but don’t have a
smoking gun.” We learned a lot about an expensive investigation into an
extremely minor matter. And, we devoured all this information happily.
Without
the hyper-competitive media coverage and the need to be first, there is no
Deflategate, only a story about Tom Brady cheating, which, again, would be
significant news, just not in the headlines nearly every day for nine months.
Without the new “breaking news”, we focus on more important things, like what
is Kim Kardashian wearing and who’s pissing off Kanye today.
Now,
get the hell off my lawn!
 |
| And don't get me started on the punishment. |
[1] I
believe there’s a Will Smith movie coming out about the NFL’s attempt to cover
up the effects of multiple concussions, and they’ve been successful. Does the
public even care about these issues anymore? Do we know what the league has
done to compensate those players and the families who were most effected by
concussions?
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