“There was widespread suspicion last month that as cable news gorged on the “Ebola in America” story, feasting on overheated coverage that played off anxiety and outright panic, that the programming was driven, in part, by a cynical attempt to boost ratings. After all, fear sells. And what better way to draw millions of additional viewers to cable news than pumping up a story about an impending virus doom and wrapping it in a partisan pre-election narrative about President Obama’s failure to lead?
As PBS science correspondent Miles O’Brien noted during an interview on CNN when the story first broke, and when he urged journalists to “take a breath” (many did not), “Unfortunately it’s a very competitive business, the business we’re in, and there is a perception that by hyping up this threat, you draw people’s attention.” He added, “That’s a shame to even say that, and I get embarrassed for our brethren in journalism.”
Longtime television observer Brian Lowry, writing at Variety, stressed that while television news has “long employed fear as a come-on to viewers,” it had “truly outdone itself” with its response to the virus.“* Cenk Uygur, John Iadarola (TYT University), Dave Rubin (Rubin Report) and Jimmy Dore (The Jimmy Dore Show) break it down.
*Read more here:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/11/14/cable-news-frenzied-ebola-coverage-produced-no/201568