Is All News Newsworthy?

As some of the regular readers of this blog may have noticed, I read a lot of news. Well at least it’s news in someone’s view, although I’m not always sure it should be. Just a quick perusal of some lead news stories around the Wondernet yesterday really left me shaking my head.

The first story that stuck out was about Katie Couric. It seems as a nation we quickly got over her photo editing scandal and moved on to her reporting the news becoming the news. Apparently, there wasn’t any significant news event yesterday. The fact that Katie was CBS’ new anchor appeared to be far more important than anything she had to say. Don’t get me wrong, she is easier on the eye than Dan Rather or Bob Schaefer. However, should her new job really be a news story? If she decides to run a cooking segment or concert series during her major network primetime newscast, that might be newsworthy.

The other big headline I noticed concerned the first public picture of Tom Cruise’s new baby, Slushie, Slurpy, Surreal or whatever she is named. I love children as much as anyone, but how much importance should be placed on the fact that her first picture has been released to the media. That should be a news item buried in the back page somewhere, if anywhere. No offense to the Cruises, but if their baby’s picture is gracing the cover of a magazine, then we’ll be sure to see it in the checkout line at our corner Piggly Wiggly (which by the way celebrates its 90th birthday today…now that’s newsworthy). We don’t need the news media to tell us that the picture will be on a magazine. I may be a cynic, but I just don’t think that’s real news. Where have all the real newsmen (and women) gone? I’m speaking of true reporting pioneers like Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and WKRP’s Les Nessman (former winner of the Buckeye News Hawk Award).

I will however tell you what in my humble opinion should be reported on. It’s a news story that has the potential to affect the health of dozens of people and it appeared in the Washington Post in a real print newspaper, so we know it’s true and important. Unfortunately, despite its implications, the story won’t be given as much attention as the stories about Couric and Suri (sounds like a law firm, doesn’t it?).

It’s about the fact that fish (namely bass) in the Potomac River are having some hormone problems. Male fish that are developing eggs have been caught over the last few years. While I’m sure the female bass population is saying it’s about time, it should be reason for alarm. I know that fish are built much differently than we are genetically speaking, but what if this starts to wreak havoc with humans in the area. In the next few years, as male fishermen begin showing signs of having high female hormones, we won’t be as prepared as we could’ve been because as a nation we were more interested in much less newsy things.

Although if the same male fishermen start developing fish eggs in their bellies, you can bet that will get news attention. I guess the moral of this story is that if you want to get real news out to the people, you need to associate it with either something freaky or celebrity related. The beauty of a story about Tom Cruise is that you get both in the same package. And that is the news for today, September 6, 2006…goodnight and may the good news be yours.