So, a small single engine plane crashed in a Manhattan high rise today. It wasn’t a notably big plane, and it didn’t hit a notably significant building. The Department of Homeland Security has said there is no reason to believe that this is a prelude to a terrorist attack. Even so, the cable news networks are all over the story, and the stock market decided it was TIME TO PANNIXORZ!
Sadly, 9/11 has launched us well into the age of hypernews, where ever minor event evokes extreme panic and sends shockwaves through financial markets for absolutely no reason at all. Where every sneeze of a suspected terrorist, true or not, is caught in the 24/7 TV news ticker (which is also an invention of 9/11). Where anchorpersons gasp the word “unbelievable” to describe a sad-but-routine news story amid repeated looping footage of the event from an amateur videographer. And where more “boring” but significantly more important stories, like the fact that North Korea can nuke people now, are swept aside.
Ah journalism, what has become of you?