The Nation is following a story involving a missing-Utahn named Susan Powell. Today a body was found near Wendover.
Another story worthy of Nationwide scrutiny is that of a Utah cop who was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Millard County. Today was the day of Officer Josie Fox’s Memorial Service and shortly thereafter (if not during) all relevant media providers scrambled for the even-further-west desert to capture a scoop.
A body had been discovered wrapped in plastic and duct tape. After MANY reports anticipating a BREAK in an ongoing story, hours of ’feeling the story out’ dealt a mustached, ‘Hispanic’ male cadaver.
Still, ’Breaking’ reports quickly moved to more speculation on the missing Mrs. Powell without the slightest consideration for who this dead man might be.
Beyond that, left behind is a current mystery involving unfolding details of Fox’s case including her own brother’s involvement in the alleged transaction that lead to her being ordered to make a stop on her executioner.
What gives? The scoop or what is actually going on? Do we consumers of media demand this sort of hype?
Bluto, sorry I missed your call, I was napping and 4 a.m. now is probably too late to call you back
As for your question…it’s natural tendency, for better or for worse, for us in the media to react to stuff.
Here’s how today plays out.
Body is found in desert.
People speculate that it’s Susan Powell.
We are invested in the Susan Powell case to the tune of more than a month of coverage.
We leave Josie Fox, which has no new angles as of this afternoon, to investigate body.
Reports out that body is that of a regular Joe six pack.
Back to life as normal.
It’s not nice, it’s not clean, but that’s the business. The sad fact is that the hierarchy of what the general public are interested in at this point is: Susan Powell –> Josie Fox –> Randon man in desert.
Details will come out about the man, and it’ll get a lot of media play especially if the details are out of the ordinary. The media’s job, again for better or for worse, is to prioritize their coverage and present it to viewers. I don’t think today was a MEDIA FAIL.
Bluto i agree totaly and tyler your thoughts are exactly why media is dieing and papers and regular news is going to go the way of the horse and buggy.
I don’t know Tyler. The way I see it, a story was still their for the gathering and telling. It was live and still breaking and it didn’t turn out to be what the media seemed to want it to be (in Wendover). So more speculation on Powell which like Fox as you put it, ‘has no new angles…’.
It’s about scoop gathering reiging paramount over letting things unfold without jumping to conclusions. Being first to report trumps accurate, rellevant and efficient reporting. It’s about causing things to unfold rather than letting them unfold, observing and reporting.
Whatever value there was in rushing out to the scene of the body when they thought it was Powell still held true. That timely value is now gone.
Interesting discussion to be had here Bluto. We’ll talk about it during open line Friday tonight.