Comments on: 24 Hour Cable News and “Prison P–n:” Or How Did “Lockup Raw” Get On a News Channel?

By: Alex Mehr

Alex Mehr — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:16:44 +0000

I hate the news channels. Thats the best way I can state it. Its never a full story at all, come on. its your job to report the news and you probably get paid very good money for the story. why don’t you get out there and take pride in your job and give us, the american public, the best darn story you can, chalk full with details and maybe actual reality. and then there are the filler stories that people don’t need to know about like which dog took best in show because frankly its useless information. Why can’t news channels actually provide us with adequate news?

By: Steve Gorelick

Steve Gorelick — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:11:15 +0000

Exactly! Although if this is the choice, I’ll take the prison stuff.

By: Dominic Orlando

Dominic Orlando — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:08:32 +0000

“Prison Porn” – it is sordid voyeurism, kind of like looking at a friend’s travel photos from Thailand.

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 13:56:17 +0000

I can’t watch these “shows”, though not for lack of trying. I just don’t see the appeal. There’s enough reality in my life that I don’t need more!

I do love NPR’s All Things Considered and catch it whenever I can.

By: Jay

Jay — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:24:04 +0000

It’s voyeurism, pure and simple – and it’s very worrying. It’s like those shedloads of books we now see in the shops cataloguing childhood abuse stories – why would anyone want to read all those? Well, OK, I have one friend who has adopted a damaged child from just such an environment and she’s read quite a few in an effort to understand him better. I guess that’s reasonable thinking … but for entertainment? I just don’t understand it.

But you know what I don’t understand about 24-hour news channels? They ALL cover exactly the same things and they do them to death. At the same time, we only ever get the major stories. Things happen all over the country, all the time, and I KNOW it’s not the case that there is no other news.

Personally, I’d like to see a few more of the human interest type stories. You know, the local stuff. The fairly unimportant-in-the-grand-scheme of things but still fascinating and even (sometimes) uplifting. But, see, that would mean the news channels actually paying journos to go out collecting such stories, and your Prison Porn is just sooo much cheaper.