Over here, Tasteful Future describes how CNN's Jack Cafferty blasted the media's obsession with the BTK killer. So CNN first grabs headlines by covering the tasteless display, then further grabs headlines by criticizing their original obsession of covering the tasteless display.
Sound vaguely familiar? It should.
Back in 1999, physicist Robert Park took a shot at Fox Network for their "alien autopsy" video, from which Fox got some surprising mileage:
ALIEN AUTOPSY: FOX NETWORK MAKES A SHOCKING REVELATION. Are you ready for this? It was a hoax! I can hear your gasp of disbelief. First aired in 1995, it was shown over and over. Who would have ever guessed that this fuzzy footage, shot from whatever angle would best obscure what was going on, would turn out to be a fake? Is the network chagrined at having been duped?
Hardly. Fox now boasts of using high-tech “NASA-type video enhancements” to expose “one of the biggest hoaxes of all time.” Lest you worry about loss of revenue from a program that scored high ratings every time it was shown, Fox will air a December 28 special exposing not only the Alien Autopsy film, but the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot as well. Is this a formula for success?
You make money off a hoax, and then from exposing your own hoax.
Coming soon on CNN: "Has the media gone too far in criticizing their own obsessions with news stories?"
1 comment:
More great examples of the media two-step in action.
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