NEWS: All the news that's fit to print?

Carlos López has a valid complaint, which goes far beyond the issue of sports, the session he is organizing for our conference. He complains that abundant publicity is given to soccer violence, while thousands of games take place without any problem. The same problem affects all areas. Take the theme of the conference, Globalization. Scenes of mob violence make good TV news, a serious discussion does not. Meetings are being held all over the US and Canada to organize protests at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec, and the police are preparing for the fight. Good for TV! The same goes for a plane crash, preferably with lots of dead, yet air travel remains the safest form of transport. TV has made the problem much worse. In print journalism the visual does not outweigh significance. It is the New York Times which claims to publish all the news that's fit to print, meaning it doesn't feature sensationalism. However, even most newspapers do. Now people get their news from TV, which has become global. The problem should therefore be taken up in the conference session on the media. Carlos has a lot of support for his complaint.

Ronald Hilton - 4/17/01