Turn off the TV, folks!

I just can't bear to watch news agencies grasp in the dark for new (and the latest!) developments in the sad situation involving the shootings at Virginia Tech. My latest disgust is over the broadcast of the shooter's "manifestos" sent in video and pictures to NBC. It turns my stomach. Since when did news become simply showing video to people and adding inane commentary to it?! (I don't know why I even asked that question, it's been like that since I can remember. Especially since they first followed OJ along California freeways. What purpose does that serve?) I thought the purpose of journalism was to get to the root of the facts and assemble them in such a way that they make sense and propose something to agree or disagree with. Showing a video just to show a video is sensational reporting. It's not news, but an odd, twisted version of entertainment--it serves some need in the human psyche to want to know everything. Anxiety and fear produce confusion and questions. Dealing with our anxiety and fear helps us to form the questions we ask and where we ought to look for information.

I want news agencies to pour over the videos, ask questions of it, get further behind it, and then decide wether it is news-worthy or not. But we don't live in that world anymore. We live in a world where we watch anchors come up with meaning over video that they see for the first time along with the public. We live in a world where anybody can be a reporter, where anything can be construed as "news." I'm just turning it off. Let the folks do their job at Va-Tech. They're in my prayers.