SEAN BOLGER

I don’t quite know when it happened but I’ve realised that I no longer sit down and watch the news on TV with any degree of regularity. Having spent a lifetime in the broadcast industry, the need to know what was going on in the world became an occupational habit and with the advent of rolling news channels, television became my drug of choice. But now it appears I’ve started to look elsewhere for my regular factual fix.

When I try to analyse all this, a couple of things strike me as pivotal in my behaviour shift.

First, what we’re increasingly given to believe is news these days is merely opinion dressed up as actuality. Oh yes, in some dark alleyway behind those barking Breaking News graphics, my suppliers have been cutting their stash with reaction, speculation and spin, and passing it on as the real deal.

OK, so I freely admit that I got caught up in this sordid subculture myself not long ago during the Michael Jackson saga. But perhaps that experience is part of the reason why I’ve since started (albeit inadvertently) to get clean.

Having met and interviewed Jackson by accident in 1999, my phone started ringing off the hook late on the night he died. From New York to New Zealand, complete strangers wanted to know what I had to say about my relatively short time with the late King of Pop.

In truth, I was a bit puzzled at first and also rather anxious that I had nothing to say of any real consequence. But what I didn’t realise then was that that didn’t matter at all. Most of them just wanted words. Any kind of words - from anyone who’d had anything to do with Michael Jackson. Ever.

So time and again I recounted the rather bizarre story of our chance encounter at Liberty Radio and explained how I found Jackson as an individual. All fair enough. But then came the really strange questions. How much did I know about his financial affairs? Who did I think would benefit in his will? Was he taking hormones to maintain his high-pitched voice?  Again, it didn’t really matter what I knew, they just wanted to know what I thought.

In short - the uninformed informing the uninformed. Great.

And yet sadly, that’s what all too often passes for news in this 24 hour TV age of ours.

Second, and perhaps more relevant, I’ve come to realise that my own news agenda no longer correlates with that of any single news provider. Thankfully though, the miracle of the web now allows me to search out stories on the issues that do matter to me and better still, digest video reports and articles from a variety of different perspectives at any hour of the day or night. It really is my news, my way.

As any decent shrink will tell you, if you want to feel better about life: stop watching the news.  And from where I’m sitting, there’s more than a grain of truth in it.

As for my habit - well, while I can’t say I’ve gone cold turkey quite yet, I’m more than happy to settle for getting my factual meds online as and when the old urge strikes.

Tags: Internet, Michael Jackson, News, TV

This entry was posted on Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Internet, News, TV, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.