I have some ideas why CNN and MSNBC both broke away from covering other stories to show Bush and his wife getting off a helicopter and getting on an airplane, but I would like to understand those decisions better.
Hopefully, we have people participating in our discussions who can provide some insight into why both cable news networks pissed away so valuable a commodity as broadcast time. If there is someone who has worked as the producer of cable or television news programs, I hope he or she will post a message in response to this diary.
I'll make an attempt to sketch my ideas, but I'd like to hear from others, if you can do that without demonizing what we all see as corporate media.
First, of course, the people who run any cable or television broadcast operation believe that the label "LIVE" is an attention grabber which will cause audience members to stay on their channel, at least to see whether the label merits their attention. It's a tactic and a marketing ploy akin to the label "NEW AND IMPROVED" on some supermarket product.
Second, we have an imperial presidency in this country, and any action by the president is assumed to merit coverage, even if that person only is picking his or her nose. Today, Bush is taking off for another extended photo op in and around New Orleans, as part of the continuing attempt to repair his political image in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. But why the silent cooperation by these businesses?
Third, and we may be getting more to the meat of the matter, there may be an implicit requirement that cable networks cover this sort of fluff for an administration if they don't want to be at a competitive disadvantage with other cable and television news operations, because administration officials may be less cooperative when it comes to granting interviews or supplying information on more substantive matters. From what the Irish reporter Carole Coleman has written, the possibility of an interview with Laura Bush was dangled in front of her immediately before she interviewed Bush, and withdrawn after she committed the sin of pushing Bush for answers to serious questions during his interview.
I don't think these three reasons explain the decisions fully, so I'd like to hear your ideas why CNN and MSNBC have been so compliant, so accommodating. Is it just that coverage is a business decision, and that journalistic standards have withered to the point of invisibility?