Drug Dangers and Madoff Move Jackson from Newscasts' Top Spots

The three network evening newscasts moved away from leading with Michael Jackson, this week. On Monday it was the sentencing of Bernard Madoff, except on NBC. On Tuesday the leads were new warnings about the dangers of not following directions when using acetaminophen (including Tylenol, and other products), the popular over the counter pain reliever that is also in some prescription drugs. The drug danger story got the top spots with Brian, Charlie, and Katie, across the board. Many local newscasts, around the country, followed a similar pattern, at least with the acetaminophen news on Tuesday.

Perhaps the greatest beneficiary of the timing of Jackson's death is Mark Sanford, the governor of South Carolina. His marital problems and free flowing accounts of liaisons with his "soul mate Maria" were relegated to the lower depths of newscasts, at least for a few days. Sanford's ability to hang onto his job may suffer once Jackson's death consumes less time and space in media coverage. The other beneficiaries of the Jackson coverage are the media. TV, newspapers, and web based news organizations all got a boost from this story with high interest and a long life or "legs."

Stories with "legs" can make viewers weary when the real reason they last is the media's laziness or fascination with human weakness and bad behavior. The Jon and Kate saga falls into this category. Certainly the manufactured interest and initial fascination with their high profile breakup made sense from the perspective of producers who wanted to give viewers as much as they would take. The problem is that stories of this type are pursued and presented for far too long. After a few days there is only so much you can say about an intrinsically sad, not otherwise newsworthy, domestic dispute.

But that's not the case with either Jackson or Sanford. Both these stories have legitimate legs. In Jackson's case, the ongoing investigation into his death and the future of his family continue to have news value. Gov. Sanford's situation, whether or not he survives as governor, requires continuing coverage until resolved.

The Pew Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism tracks news coverage. Last week, protests in Iran led Pew's list of most covered stories, but that shifted dramatically as Jackson's death became the overwhelmingly dominant news. After several days as the lead, it took the sentencing of a high profile scoundrel and a public health story about dangers from a popular painkiller to knock down our fascination with a legitimate celebrity's death, in the news lineups across the country.

The story of Madoff's swindles and the dangers of acetaminophen should have been pursued more actively by journalists before government prosecutors, in the case of Madoff, and the FDA, with regard to acetaminophen, got involved. The failures of the financial media have been well documented as the economy tumbled. Jon Stewart, ostensibly a comedian but really much more, did some of the best work in showing how poorly reporters reported on what was going on in financial markets. As for the dangers of not following directions when it comes to the use of acetaminophen, that story has been available, too. But for the media, it usually takes "official" action for the story to break as major news. Some of those reasons are legal--fear of libel lawsuits--but with good, honest, reporting that should not be a problem. Mostly, though, the media's failure to be out front on important stories is a consequence of shrinking budgets and lack of will.

For journalism to thrive in the future, mainstream and grassroots citizen journalism, reporters will have to identify stories and trends before they become prosecutions and crashes, or unnecessary deaths requiring FDA action. Those stories will always have "legs" and they'll serve the public, an important part of journalism's mission.