Journalism is alive and well, and the running of stories like that in your example is based on supply and demand, although I don't know what news outlet that story is on?? I'm guessing it's not CNN or The Times

In the UK, one of the top stories is Novac Djokovic and his covid complications down under. I'm surprised anyone really gives a sh*t about that but apparently they do. Some weeks ago I wrote to the BBC and asked why they were not reporting the Ukraine/Russia standoff on the home page of their news site, or on pretty much any of their TV news progammes. I eventually got a reply which said they choose which stories to report on very carefully taking into account 'target audience'

In other words people do want to know people farting, who's going to be on Love Island and endless speculations about covid restrictions. In fairness most people wouldn't be able to find Ukraine on a map, or Russia for that matter, and don't really care anyway, whatever the implications.

"Farts don't care about your feelings" (Ben Shapiro's proctologist)


Edited by ExittheLemming - January 10 2022 at 08:19

 Without going down the political road, news in general seems to have dropped it standards & plays more for entertainment then information. The morning shows are the worst. If your lucky you get 15 minutes of hard news at the top of the show followed by several hours of fluff & human interest stories.  At least that's how it is in the U.S. 

Edited by Argo2112 - January 10 2022 at 11:14

Argo2112 wrote: If your lucky you get 15 minutes of hard news at the top of the show followed by several hours of fluff & human interest stories.

One of my 'awakening' moments came when Ted Koppel, a respected old school reporter /journalist (and not an unqualified biased commentator) gave a profound farewell when Nightline was cancelled, (as not being entertaining enough) which perhaps was the igniting spark that ultimately created the media quagmire that we have today. There are barely any journalists anymore, even newscasters are now agenda-peddlers, audience sycophants and agitprop spokespeople. Serious stories do not sell, as the masses are interested mostly in lurid scandal, insults and image destruction.

When asked how he sees the future of journalism, he responded that, even though there is a lot of valuable and intelligent news programming left, the majority is dirge-driven, highly opinionated as well as totally biased. Many old school newsmen were impossible to unveil as left or right (re: Walter Cronkite). Fair balanced point of view. Journalism must be objective and not opinionated. Internet and its social media arm have become a weapon of mass destruction, or at the very least weapons of mass disinformation. Of the 5Ws, the where and the when are obvious and immediate, just like in a crime scene, these are the very first facts that need verification, the who and the what is a little harder but the 21^st century masses have NO TIME for the why! It is too complex, takes too long and is open to interpretation. This is the crux of the problem.  He is correct 100% , IMHO. 

In Britain the main threat to balanced, objective and serious news reporting are the attacks on the BBC currently being made by the Johnson Government and it’s supporters in the press (i.e. most of it). Not that the BBC is perfect, of course, but if it were to be abolished or restructured in any radical way, this would seriously impoverish quality news reporting in the UK.

Edited by Hewitt - January 15 2022 at 12:08

Miriam Margolyes claims Arnold Schwarzenegger deliberately “farted in my face”

Source: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/miriam-margolyes-arnold-schwarzenegger-farted-in-my-face/

Oh boy, farting is something. I wanna hear people farting all the time!