Media Bitchfest

Shafer, The Times and Local Boobery

July 28th, 2006 by Justin

I have always been of the belief that newsworthiness can be summed up by the “Oh Shit” principle. If you read something and it makes you say “Oh Shit,” it’s newsworthy. If you read something and you say “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh Shiiiit,” it’s that much more newsworthy.

By this thought process, something that is “Oh Shit” on a national scale is even “Oh Shit”-ier if it happens next door. Thus, local news will always have the potential to be more compelling than national news, that is, if it’s done right.

So when you read Jack Shafer’s story on Slate this morning about how the New York Times makes local papers dumber, I am inclined to agree, but for different reasons. He opines that since smart people read smarter papers like the NYT, the locals have to pander with insipid regional coverage. I maintain that lack of execution waters down a local, the inability to make something compelling without an immediate news hook. In this expanding net of media availability we have grown lazy by getting big news from the world’s hot spots, we have forgotten how many fucked up things happen all around us.

Find The Sicko, is a harder game to play when there are 50 maniacs dancing for all to see on webcams around the world, junk flapping in the breeze and wry smiles creasing their crusted faces. But as Dave Attell says, somewhere, right now, someone is fucking an animal.

We need to find that animal, and hope he lives in your area code.

• I think Jack Shafer reads the Times a lot [Slate]

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