Weekend Reading: How to become an imbecile

Short answer: get all your news from the television.

Long answer: Anne and I enjoyed a 9-day vacation earlier this month. Our only news source was our hotel room television. For more than a week, our only news sources were the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) and all-news cable channels (CNN, Fox, and MSNBC).

Compared to what a typical person should know to functionally and productively participate in and contribute to our globe, the TV news left me feeling woefully inadequate. Here are a few specific thoughts about what people who rely solely on TV news are missing:

Gas prices: It’s not news that gas prices spiked over the past few months – anyone who drives already knows it. However, according to the TV news I watched, the only causal factor is expected military conflict in the Middle East. There was no reporting that US oil companies today get little, if any, petroleum from Iraq. Not a single reporter mentioned Venezuela, arguably the primary cause of the spike, which remains gripped by a national strike over the legitimacy of an elected ruler who allegedly ordered the deaths of his citizens to justify the imposition of emergency powers and who claims ideological kinship with Fidel Castro.

Plane crashes: I watched at least 10 minutes of coverage on NBC’s Today regarding a small plane crash in California and the search to locate the pilot and her passenger while she directed rescuers on her cell phone. I concluded this was “news” only because of the blood-curdling recordings of her emergency call and video footage of the crash and rescue. The statistical likelihood that any Today viewers will ever find themselves in that situation is essentially zero. Never mentioned is that one of the most hotly contested telecommunications issues of the past few years is the federal regulation requiring mobile phones to identify the caller’s location to emergency services, so valuable rescue time isn’t lost while triangulating on a cellular signal – a regulation so vigorously opposed by the mobile phone industry that it’s now delayed years past its original implementation date.

Transplant recipient’s death: Everyone was deeply affected by the story of the teenaged girl whose heart-lung transplant failed because the original organs were the wrong blood type. The subsequent transplant of compatible organs was unsuccessful and she died. I saw only one local – not national – news broadcast that highlighted the shortage of organ donors, which affects tens of thousands of Americans (and more than a few Chinese prisoners whose organs have allegedly been harvested for sale to organ recipients). Not a single broadcast news outlet discussed the global trade in organs or whole blood (far more common and dangerous). None capitalized on an excellent opportunity to remind viewers of simple strategies they can use to prevent medical errors – errors exactly like the one that caused this girl’s death – or that preventable medical error is likely the fifth leading cause of death in America today, estimated to take the lives of nearly 100,000 Americans annually.

Nightclub nightmares: Clearly the dominant story the week we vacationed, more than 100 people died in a stampede in Chicago and a fire in Rhode Island. A tragedy, but probably the best example of an effective TV new story: the video that propelled the Rhode Island story was taken by a cameraman shooting footage for a news story about how to be safe in nightclubs following the Chicago deaths. Unfortunately, the reporter doing that story is allegedly part owner of the club that burned, opening him and his station to credible charges of violating more than a few journalistic ethics.

Now, I’m the first to admit I’m a news junkie. Daily, I read my local Austin American-Statesman; scan the pages of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times; review a half-dozen online news summaries from such sources as Slate and Wired; check Best of the Web at OpinionJournal.com; listen to two hours of National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” getting ready for work, two hours of “All Things Considered” in the afternoons, and Public Radio International’s “The World” and “Marketplace” on the way home (find these excellent programs streaming online through NPR affiliates such as KUT, KERA, and WAMU); and, regularly consult my personalized Netscape portal, Google News, and The Drudge Report. Weekly, I valiantly attempt cover-to-cover attention to the Austin Business Journal, The New Yorker, The Weekly Standard, and The Economist. Monthly, I receive The Atlantic Monthly, Texas Monthly, Harper’s, and two editions of “Vital Speeches of the Day.” I typically have a book of at least passing relevance to current events on my nightstand.

But I don’t think anyone has to be a news junkie of my magnitude to appreciate that telling people that the reason gas prices are going up is due to Iraq, when it’s largely something else, could lead well intentioned people, who think they’re well informed, to make poorly informed decisions about critical public policy issues.

Likewise, attention directed to dramatic audio or video footage that detracts from the actual news value of the story fails to honor the intelligence of viewers who might actually derive some benefit – or even desire to take some affirmative action – after learning that their cellular phone provider is probably responsible for the industry’s failure to implement potentially lifesaving technology.

The transplant recipient stories were probably most egregious: by focusing almost solely on the emotional component of this admittedly emotional story, the TV news providers utterly and inexcusably failed to share valuable public health information that could increase the number of organ donors and decrease the lethality of medical errors, to inform viewers about some of the most tragic human rights violations occurring anywhere on the planet, and to remind people that the U.S. blood supply is only as safe as the blood supply in the countries from which we import blood.

These considerations are fundamental to understanding some of the most important issues we face as citizens of our communities, our nation, and the globe. Our vacation was a painful and valuable reminder that we all have to work harder than the television news to learn and understand them.

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