February 15, 2006
tabloid vs mainstream media
For some time now I have had trouble distinguishing the tabloids from the mainstream media publications, however, the recent accidental shooting of Harry Whittington by Vice President Cheney during a quail hunt has shed some light on the differences.
While storys in both the tabloids and the mainstream media publications seem to be exaggerated and almost untrue it appears that the tabloid reporters are the real go getters. For example, if Vice President Cheney was in the mountains hunting and accidentally shot Jake Gyllenhaal or Randy Quaid, the paparazzi would have had the complete story with photos, the tabloid would have released a special issue and it would have been at the supermarket check out within two hours of the incident. Since there were no non-political celebrities involved the paparazzi wasn't around.
In this case the mainstream media did what they do best, NOTHING. Rather than looking for the story they sat back and waited for the White House to leak the information and then proceeded to complain to Scott McClellan that it took the White House too long to brief the press. If the main stream media want to get their circulation up they're going to have to get their reporters off their asses and out pounding the pavment.
