Most men lead lives of quiet desperation. Film at Eleven.

- Reuven Frank, NBC News

As I write this, every cable news outlet is providing wall-to-wall coverage of the tragic mass-shooting New York state. While it’s natural that any tragedy of this nature is newsworthy, I can’t help but wonder, is the amount of coverage more about ratings and pandering, than it is about communicating valuable information in a timely fashion?

What drives me crazy about network news isn’t so much what they report – it’s how they report it. On a normal news day, marketing has assumed what I see as an unhealthy influence over the way we get our news. Stories are “teased” throughout a broadcast. Before the news is even on, you’ll see a promo, with an anchor breathlessly intoning, “Are your children at risk? Details at 10.” Wow. You’ve almost got to watch, or risk endangering your kids! So you watch. At the start of the broadcast, the anchor will say, “Tonight we investigat kids at risk. But first…” followed by the standard dreck – national stories, local stories, weather and sports. Along the way, just before each commercial break, we’ll hear the same bloody story teased again: “Coming up after the break, are your children at risk?” Of course, they don’t tell you WHICH break. Add it up, and probably 5 to 10 minutes of each newscast is wasted, telling us what they’re gonna tell us…later. Finally, the story hits the screen. “Are your kids at risk? If they aren’t getting enough sleep, experts say ‘yes.’” This is followed by some well-meaning idiot with a book to sell, telling us that we’re bad parents for not putting our kids to bed as the sun goes down. Marketing not only depreciates the news with ‘teases,’ but corrupts the process by blurring the lines between hard news and P.R. Then there’s “emergency” or “crisis” mode.

When a “big” story breaks, the news can’t wait to pull out all the stops. Helicopters, fancy graphics, field reporters, live remotes – they all cost money, many of them regardless of their use, so this Investment Must Be Justified. Regularly. Besides – panic sells. News organizations live for this stuff, and they do their best to feed the insatiable appetite of the general public for sensationalism.

I yearn for a day where the media kept “news” and “entertainment” in separate corners, never the twain shall mix. Today, most news organizations are under the control of their network’s respective entertainment divisions. And “entertainment” is all about how to motivate and manipulate people. Enter marketing – the dark, unseemly side of marketing.

Is there anything to do about this? As long as this nonsense works, probably not. But as individuals, we can always pull the curtain aside and watch the wizard work the levers. It’s sad, but thanks to marketing, the network news we’d like to trust is largely full of sound and fury, signifying…nothing.