Broadcasting fear

My local NBC affiliate LOVES playing up their nightly fear-a-thons during their primetime teasers.

It seems like every night we see breaking news about a rapist, a string of murders, a string of burglaries, or any other number of horrifying stories they can pull off the nightly police scanners.

“Tonight at 10… why police are asking women to be on the lookout for a suspected rapist…”

“A string of burglaries have hit a North Texas neighborhood… what the thieves are after and how you can protect your stuff… tonight at 10.”

“Poison apples are making a comeback in schools… how to protect your kids from the threat of evil lunch ladies…”

(OK I definitely made the last one up.)

But alongside these horrifying crime stories they’re not only selling fear directly, they’re disguising it by reporting on the latest in quick weight loss news or easy health care “cheats.”

All of which I would argue is selling another type of fear — the fear of rejection or the fear of not being good enough.

“A North Texas woman has lost 156 pounds with an amazing new weight loss cream… what’s behind this weight loss phenomenon…. tonight at 10.”

“Teenagers fighting back against acne… find out how tonight at 10…”

And of course, they plug the weight loss stories on Tuesday nights — while most people are sitting on their couch watching The Biggest Loser.

And then on Thursdays they’ll plug marriage related stories — while most (some) people are sitting at home watching The Marriage Ref.

Kind of a nice gig they’ve got going — all in the name of hooking you in — show after show.

Yet one of my “favorite” stories they teased dealt a typical home burglary.

But this wasn’t a typical home burglary.

“The man broke into the house — and then made himself a sandwich!

Yup! A sandwich! I continually hear the announcer’s dramatic voice of anger and disgust as if making the sandwich was the thing we should fear most.

Hide your bread and lunch meat! Lock it up in your fridge! Someone might break in and get hungry in the process!

Oh brother!

A drive-by shooting

I couple weeks back I tweeted that we noticed some police activity in my hometown of Mesquite, Texas.

We found out later that during the 30-45 minutes we were eating lunch, an altercation happened at the neighboring gas station and two women were gunned down in their car. The suspect fled from the police and then turned his gun on himself a short time later.

The next morning I expected to hear something mentioned on my local NPR station but there was nothing.

Several of the local network affiliates had coverage of the story (including aerial footage), but nothing on the NPR affiliate.

I was slightly annoyed — but then I got to thinking, “Do I really want to hear about another shooting? What benefit is it to me to know about a random act of violence in our area?”

Then it started to click. NPR doesn’t cover many (if any) murders on their local newscasts.

Why the difference in approaches?

While our local network affiliates seem to focus on shock-journalism, NPR has typically become a great retreat from the news of the norm.

I don’t hear the standard fear-mongering and celebrity gossip I might get from a typical news source.

Is it because of the ratings and ultimately the advertising dollars?

Is it simply a difference between for-profit and not-for-profit news sources?

I can think of a couple “news shows” that are run by non-profits and yet they focus on a lot of fear-mongering.

Of course in their defense, each media outlet will tell us that they’re only reporting on the things people say they want to hear more of.

But is there really that much difference between NPR listeners and the average American news consumer?

Or have we as a society really come to the point where all we want to hear is who to fear next?

I really don’t know.

What do you think?

How have you seen this play out in your local community?