Since the Job of News is to Sell Beer and Shampoo

…it functions the way dog food commercials function. Did you ever notice that dog food looks, you know, rather appetizing on dog food commercials? That’s because dogs don’t buy dog food. People buy dog food. So you pitch the content to the people, not the dogs.

In the same way, our manufacturers of information pitch their “news” to the obsessions of their viewers, not to actually telling us what’s going on. So, for instance, in our post-Christian, sex-obsessed culture, you find that NBC is spending 13X more coverage on Russian anti-gay legislation than on attacks on Syrian Christians. Why? Because the denizens of 30 Rock and their peer group are obsessed with sexual libertinism and could not care less about about a bunch of Syrian Christians getting slaughtered. And they don’t see why you would care either. So the decision is made for us as to what constitutes “news”. Sex is appetitizing. Death, not so much (unless they can get some cool footage of people being killed). But that would require NBC journos being in harm’s way and about the biggest hardship they want to deal with is a hotel in Russia. It’s the same reason we heard so much more about Bosnia (conveniently located near comfy digs in Rome and other European tourist locales) and not so much about Rwanda or Somalia.

When our manufacturers of information fake their “concern” about injustice, they prefer it be something that will not cost them anything. This is another example of our Chattering Class bravely facing the applause of their peers.