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Sunday, August 17, 2008

Oh, COME ON



CBS investigates:

  • Is Stevie Nicks a witch?
  • She is so awesome. How does she write such wonderful songs?
  • What's up with her hairstyles? She's changed her hair since the 1970s!
How low can TV journalism go? We might have an answer!

I'm not aware that there is ANY news hook here at all, and I say that as a fan. She's not touring. She hasn't released a new album. She wasn't even the one who announced that the band will be touring in 2009. There is absolutely no news value in this sort of interview.

I could ignore this if there was some indication that the interview is intended as a human-interest-type profile. In fact, you could make a case that true journalism isn't just about what happened yesterday; it's about putting all of the pieces together to reflect something that's even more real than the news. I really like profiles. They give a reporter the opportunity to ask probing questions that show a person as he or she really is.

News flash: Witches are not real. If a famous person is actually delusional enough to believe that he or she can control evil spirits, that might be worth some inquiry. Questions about hairstyles are the sort of fawning garbage I expect from ET Canada, not from CBS News. The reporter is positively giddy at being in the same room with Ms. Nicks, who, to her credit, is answering the questions very seriously. This is all so odd that I wonder if a publicist set it up and insisted on ground rules: no questions about Ms. Nicks herself.

I also feel compelled to tell the producer of this item that Don't Stop is not a Stevie Nicks song. Nice try, though.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

This "reporter" is an idiot! Totally agree about the fawning stuff. One question I would have asked, "Have you had plastic surgery?" I mean, she looks friggin' amazing for ag 60!