Media Chases Shiny Objects: Sex, Lies, and Videotape

I’m reasonably sure I understand why John Ensign resigned from the U.S. Senate, and it doesn’t disturb me in the least that John Edwards in under indictment.  Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to be under the radar for some time, alongside former Appalachian Trail hiker and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford.  Louisiana Senator David Vitter’s antics were highly questionable, and in the same vein as former NY Governor Elliott Spitzer.  I was appalled at the behavior of former NY Congressman Christopher Lee, and no less aghast at the “sexting” of current NY Congressman Anthony Wiener.  However, there is something more appalling about the media coverage of nearly all of these instances.

With the exceptions of Ensign and Edwards, who may have broken the laws of the land, all the attention to the others has been titillating, voyeuristic, and almost without much serious content.  As a Nevadan I’m not particularly shocked by prostitution, our county seat has an area “reserved” for those businesses — complete with a little sign to let potential customers know on which side street to turn.  So the activities of Senator Vitter and former Governor Spitzer aren’t particularly interesting.  I wish they hadn’t used the services of sex workers, thinking as I do that sex work is demeaning to women.   Cable media found these two far more interesting than I.

Schwarzenegger and Sanford have “domestic problems.” One announcement would have been sufficient.  Do I need to know the names of the “other woman” or the “other child?”  Probably not.  In fact, I don’t remember either at the moment.

Moving along to Lee and Wiener — stupid behavior warrants attention, but Please is nothing else happening on the Planet?  Our cable news broadcasters appear to have little else to do than comment upon sexual transgressions, probably because this is what will earn them “ratings” and advertising rates depend on reaching wider audiences.    I understand the press flocking to the sites of natural and man-made disasters, we should be informed of the nature and extent of the damage — and be told how we can help.  However, personal disasters while intriguing don’t rise to the level of significance the recent and current media attention would exemplify.

Hyperbole sells.  If behavior is outrageous enough, the person, whether back bench Congress member or local athlete, will find the media swooping in like so many vultures.  Do I feel badly for the wives of Schwarzenegger, Sanford, Lee, Spitzer, Vitter, Lee, and Wiener? Yes.  Do the personal tragedies within their families rise to the level of “national issue?” Not so much.  In these cases I can imagine that the media compounds the personal travails by performing like the tabloid press, from which it would so like to distinguish itself.

If the cable broadcast networks would truly like to differentiate between their content and the stories in the National Enquirer and even lesser news outlets, with their exercises in creative writing — then perhaps it would behoove them to act like it.

There may be a hint of what is happening with viewership in the ratings for daytime cable which indicate viewers in 1000’s.  We are a nation of 307,000,000 people.  The latest ratings show total primetime cable viewership at 4,837,000.  That works out to about 1.575% of the entire population of the United States.  Approximately 2,789,000 of us are watching cable news outlets during the day time, and that calculates out to about 0.908% of our total population.

Another hint comes from Pew Research, as the graph clearly indicates trends for all the “traditional” media are declining while the  Internet as a news source has gained. It may well be that cable broadcasters, a niche within all television broadcasting, have decided that “If It Bleeds, It Leads” in order to secure ratings.  Thus the cable broadcasters have no small incentive to attract viewers by being the most sensational as contrasted to the most informative.

One possible explanation for the continued coverage of the Schwarzenegger, Sanford, Vitter, Spitzer, Lee, and Wiener stories is that to a cable production team (under instructions to keep the small audiences already in hand and to attract more like them) have determined that Sex Sells — which we’ve known since the Jordan Motor Car Company  launched it’s “Somewhere West of Laramie” advertising campaign in the Saturday Evening Post, in the June 1923 edition.

Time is a factor as well, since the cable broadcasters have to fill so much of it. With something…anything.  Dead air doesn’t draw customers, i.e. advertisers.  Whatever the news buffs in the office may think, the business side of the venture, those responsible for selling commercial time, want “sure fire” ratings-grabbers and the moral transgressions of public figures will do very nicely.

Small audiences in relatively small demographics combined with a predilection for the sensational which is presumed to drive ratings seems a recipe for a continuing decline in broadcast attention as demonstrated by the Pew trends.  And, if the preceding is true it makes this cartoon in the Las Vegas Sun all the more pertinent.