The Way News Works

| media | journalism |

I have always been fascinated by the way that news works. It just seems like anything that happened yesterday is easily forgotten as long as something more important happens today. It used to be a day to day basis in the days of the old newspaper but now with twitter, and blogs, and up to the minute updates on news websites. We no longer even get our 15 minutes of fame. We get about 15 seconds and 140 words.

I was amazed yesterday that no later than 30 minutes after Michael Jackson died they already had a flash slideshow of his life story along with comments, pictures, transitions, and the whole 9 yards. it is almost as if they have a secret shelf with pre-made slideshows just in case someone important dies. Hell they even wrote original songs for the man last night and they are up everyone today.

I find it interesting how we seldom get a resolution to a news story or mystery. For example, I remember in April Swine Flu was all the rage. Everyone was wearing masks, everyone was scared, people started buying out all the bottled water and toilet paper in the grocery stores, giving people a yellow star to wear, and everything. Over like 10 cases of flu.

Now with over 1 MILLION cases confirmed it seems like no one really gives a crap. Every day brings a story that knocks out even the biggest news in the world.

Monday - Iran Election

Tuesday - Red Line Crash

Wed - Iran Election

Thursday - Michael Jackson

Friday - Micahael Jackson , Michael Jacksons Doctor, Michael Jacksons kids, interviews, hell even wolf blitzer was on there commenting on the jackson 5.

I wonder what the big story is going to be tomorrow that wipes away MJ’s last bit of press??

Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.

Check out some more stuff to read down below.

Most popular posts this month

Recent Favorite Blog Posts

This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.

Articles from blogs I follow around the net

Hacking Workshop for September 2026

I'm pleased to announce that David Rowley will be joining us in September to discuss his talk Optimizing code in the hot path; with examples from tuple deformation. If you're interesting in joining us, please sign up using this form and I will send you an...

via Robert Haas July 31, 2026

One and one thing only

I wanted to show you a year’s worth of messages from my barber’s software, because this is what software should be. No spam, no upsells, no growth hacks, no unwelcome cuteness or puzzling verbosity. It’s so curt and straight to the point it should be set i...

via Unsung July 31, 2026

Pluralistic: Better to beg forgiveness (31 Jul 2026)

Today's links Better to beg forgiveness: Don't ring the doorbell at the house of no unless you absolutely must. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: RIP Poul Anderson; P2P at PC Forum; Waitress handed her own stolen ID by carded dine...

via Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow July 31, 2026

Generated by openring