There's a lot going on in the world today, including, off the top of my head, the health care debate, the Sotomayor confirmation, record unemployment, two wars, and even as two American journalists are released by North Korea, three American hikers are now being held by Iran. So what was the lead story on both Good Morning America and the Today show this morning? A shooting at a health club last night in Pennsylvania. Based on the way it was presented by both shows, this story was very big news indeed. NBC was running a "Breaking News" banner, even though the story was now about 12 hours old, and both shows sent big gun news stars to report "Live" from the scene - Lester Holt ("filling in for Matt Lauer") for Today and Chris Cuomo for GMA.
For the families of those killed and injured this is, of course, a tragedy, and for those who were in the health club and survived it had to have been terrifying, but for everyone else, is this really news? National-level, "lead story" important news? I don't think so. This was a perfect example of the news judgement axiom that "If it bleeds, it leads." To put it another way, it's not just People magazine that has been dumbed down and sexed up.
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