Commentary—

Infotainment Society: Junk Food News — 2008/2009

By Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff

The late New York University media scholar Neil Postman once said about America, “We are the best entertained least informed society in the world.” From Jessica Simpson’s weight and Brangelina’s escapades, to Britney Spears’ sister and the Obamas’ First Puppy, Americans are fed a steady “news” diet of useless information laden with personal anecdotes, scandals, and gossip.

Since the middle of the 1980s, Project Censored at Sonoma State University has annually researched this phenomenon. We have found that topics and in-depth reports that matter little to anyone in any meaningful way are given massive amounts of coverage in the corporate media. In recent years, this has only become more obvious.

For instance, CNN’s coverage of celebrity Anna Nicole Smith’s untimely death in early 2007 is arguably one of the most egregious examples of an over abused news story. The magnitude of corporate media attention paid to the event were clearly out of synch with the coverage the story deserved, which was at most a simple passing mention. Instead, CNN broadcast “breaking” stories of the event uninterrupted, without commercials, for almost two hours, with commentary by lead anchors and journalists. This marked among the longest uninterrupted “news” broadcasts at CNN since the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Anna Nicole Smith and 9/11 are now strange bedfellows, milestone bookends of corporate news culture.

While news outlets were obsessing over Smith, most press giants were missing a far more important story. The US ambassador to Iraq misplaced $12 billion in shrink-wrapped $100 bills that were flown to Baghdad. This garnered little attention due to the media’s morbid infatuation with celebrity. That is clearly news judgment gone terribly awry if not an outright retreat from journalistic standards. The once trivial and absurd are now mainstreamed as “news.” More young people turn to late night comics’ fake news to learn the truth or tune in to so-called reality shows often scripted as Roman Holiday spectacles of the surreal. Welcome to the Infotainment Society: American Media in the 21st Century.

Here are the Top Ten Junk Food News Stories for 2008 and 2009 as chosen by Project Censored students and the online community via http://projectcensored.org:

1. Olympic Medalist Michael Phelps Hits a Bong

2. Jessica Simpson Gains Weight

3. First Lady Michelle Obama’s Fashion Sense

4. The Brangelina Twins

5. Lindsay Lohan Dating a Woman

6. The Presidential First Puppy

7. Heidi Montag “Marries” Spencer Pratt

8. Barry Bonds Steroid Trial

9. Jamie-Lynn Spears Gives Birth

10. The Woes of Amy Winehouse

The British tabloid “News of the World” published an exclusive photo of Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps smoking marijuana from a bong on Sunday, February 1, 2009, with the headline, “What a Dope.” The picture was allegedly taken during a November house party while Phelps was visiting the University of South Carolina. The incident occurred nearly three months after the swimmer won eight gold medals for America at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. Phelps quickly apologized to the public for his “regrettable behavior.” The bong’s owner reportedly tried to sell it on eBay for $100,000. In the weeks following, Phelps lost his sponsorship from Kellogg’s cereal.

Photos of Jessica Simpson performing at a Florida Chili Cook-off looking a bit heavier than usual surfaced during the week of January 26. The purportedly unflattering shots of a curvier looking Simpson in an outfit that included “a muffin-top-inducing leopard belt” immediately made news headlines. Was she pregnant? Was she picking up eating habits from her NFL star boyfriend? Or was she simply hungry for publicity? President Barack Obama even noticed Simpson was “in a weight battle” during a pre-Super Bowl interview.

The United States is not only becoming a nation of obese people, but is on the verge of another phenomenon, the equivalent of cultural and mental obesity. We are a nation awash in a sea of information, yet we have a paucity of understanding. We are a country where over a quarter of the population know the names of all five members of the fictitious family from The Simpsons, yet only one in a thousand can name all the rights protected under the First Amendment to the US Constitution. Journalistic values have been sold out to commercial interests and not even our core, national and constitutionally protected values are sacred.

(Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and Director of Project Censored. Mickey Huff is an Associate Professor of History at Diablo Valley College and Associate Director of Project Censored. Frances A. Capell, a Project Censored intern, contributed to this article. www.projectcensored.org. )