10: Critiquing how TV news covered the Virginia Tech tragedy

Welcome to one very jarring episode of the TV Talk Machine podcast. Normally, as you know, when I am team with Question Boy (the Chronicle's very own Joe Garofoli) discussing all things TV, it often descends to rambling silliness. But this time out--at least for about the first 25 minutes--we decided to get serious. It makes sense. Garofoli is The Chronicle's media writer. Prior to him taking that job, I pretty much handled the duties for years. Together, we have a lot of experience on that beat. And this week we've obviously been called to duty on the Virginia Tech shooting rampage. In fact, my column today is all about how television news still covers major events in the same flawed way as the last tragedy, never learning any lessons or adopting change. After we taped this podcast, I spent much of the day following the latest angle, where the gunman sent a "multi-media manifesto" to NBC News. I blogged about it the rest of the day. So, in a break from being inane on the podcast, the two of us discussed a variety of topics related to media coverage. I think you'll find that possibly enlightening. However, if you also crave an escape from this whole story, fear not. After we segue into a discussion of series like "The Sopranos" and "The Riches" and take a few calls, all hell breaks loose and the entire podcast devolves, basically, into me going gay for Jonathan Rhys Meyers in "The Tudors." And a woman wants to cancel her paper but she called the TV Talk Machine line instead, and of course we won't let her because we need the money. As for this week, it's a tonal nightmare. It's the TV Talk Machine!