By Juliana McLeod, News Staff
You might have heard about it, perhaps seen it as well: a video that has gone viral and sheds a different light on cable news.
MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell is interviewing former Congresswoman Jane Harman when, mid-sentence, Mitchell interrupts Harman. The host backs up her disruption by announcing that there has been breaking news.
Is everything all right in Sochi? Did something just happen in Syria?
MSNBC viewers would not know. This breaking news was about the infamous Justin Bieber. And, for the record, everything was not all right with him.
Mitchell reported the pop singer had been arrested in Miami for suspicion of driving under the influence and resisting arrest. For whatever reason, watchers had to know right then that the teen star broke the law. Viewers could not have waited for the former congresswoman to finish her sentence to hear this groundbreaking information.
Why do we care about Bieber’s arrest? I realize that he is a household name and the general population is intrigued by downfalls. But I will go to a gossip magazine website or watch E! News to find out this kind of information. My first instinct is not to turn to MSNBC for the latest news on JB.
Are we more concerned about Bieber’s latest escapades than the current political state?
MRCTV seems to think so. The online news source visited George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. to ask students exactly how much they know about the current state of events.
In the video, students were first asked what had happened to Bieber, which was easily answered by everyone shown. Next, the reporter asked the students about President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address.
Long story short, students could only guess that Obama spoke about the economy or the environment during his address. Most of the students did not watch the address and several had no idea it had even happened. But, no worries, they knew what had happened to Bieber.
Yet it is not just college students that are obsessed with the pop star. News sources believe that their readers and watchers genuinely want to know about Justin Bieber.
CNN even created a timeline of Bieber’s downward spiral, called “Justin Bieber’s Troubled Timeline,” to give online readers an in-depth look of Bieber’s notorious actions throughout 2013.
I have to admit I was surprised when a news alert popped up on my phone from CNN detailing Bieber’s arrest. And then another one for his bail. And yet another one for his toxicology report.
Why was this considered breaking news? Apparently, the fact that Bieber had marijuana, alcohol and Xanax in his system at the time of his arrest was information that I had to know immediately.
This is a question of our priorities and, apparently, Bieber is one of them. The fact that a congresswoman was stopped from speaking about the nation’s security so that viewers could instead see Bieber’s arraignment is alarming.
Not only did we have to know what was happening to the “Baby” singer right away, but we even had the opportunity to see this thrilling news live.
This is not what news is to me. But if this is what the country expects when they turn on the TV to see what happened in the world today, then by all means, there it is.
-Juliana McLeod can be reached at [email protected].
