When You Have Nothing to Say, Say Nothing. Yesterday the news broadcasts were full of speculation substituting for news. They speculated about whom John Kerry had chosen for his running mate and whether a captured U.S. Marine was dead, alive, even freed. They speculated long and loud, in a total absence of information. Why?
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News is what has in fact happened, not what might — which is also, by definition, what might NOT — happen.
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The understanding was that Kerry would make his announcement the following day but say nothing before then. Why not just say "We know nothing, so will say nothing. When we know, you'll know"? Oh, no, they couldn't do that! They have to speculate, emptily, stupidly, wastefully of our time and energy. You can't just wait one day? What the hell is wrong with you people?
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Why waste our time with background info about Senator Bob Graham of Florida and what he might bring to the ticket (the great prize, Florida) or similar types of information about Richard Gephardt, Tom Vilsack, and John Edwards on Monday if we'll know on Tuesday that the candidate is only one of them — tho of course it might have been none of them. It turned out, we found out today — as we were told it would be announced today — to be John Edwards. So we didn't need to know about Bob Graham or Richard Gephardt or Tom Vilsack, did we? Why are supposedly reputable news organizations wasting our time with irrelevancies?!?
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In the same vein, news media had no hard news whatsoever to report about the captured Lebanese-born U.S. Marine, but of course they kept chattering endlessly noentheless, reporting this Islamist website claim and that idle rumor and this pointless speculation and that hopeful glimmer. Just shut up and wait! Can you do that? If you can't, you need professional help.
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When you know nothing, say nothing.
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P.S. A few hours after I posted this entry, I heard that the New York Post did worse than idly speculate in the absence of real information. It actually reported, full-front-page, that Kerry had chosen Gephardt as running mate! Astounding. Now, for the sake of trying to scoop the competition by a few insignificant hours, the editors of the Post made themselves look like the biggest bunch of boobs in journalism. Oh, wait. They are the biggest bunch of boobs in journalism! Never mind.
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 3:52 PM