Written By: Jake Novak
If you’re old enough to remember hot news stories from 25 years ago plus, you just might recall the crazy “Shark Attack Summer” of 2001. It seemed like every day of that last season before the 9/11 attacks was punctuated by breathless news reports about beachgoers getting bitten or even killed by sharks. This was true in all levels of the business, from small local newspapers to national TV news channels. The nation became obsessed with what seemed like a suddenly explosive trend as if it was something out of a horror movie. Americans demanded answers. Were all these attacks due to climate change? Naval sonar? A sign of the Apocalypse?
In the end, it actually turned out to be a sign of nothing other than media obsession. The actual statistics showed that 2001 turned out to be a much lighter than average year for shark attacks in the U.S., down even from the year before. It just felt differently because the news media decided to cover just about every attack, and emphasize each report with gusto.
Now I want everyone to keep that in mind as we are now in the midst of what I see as another potential media obsession in the works. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen a rash of stories about everything from gang rape to vicious hazing, to old school goldfish swallowing at several fraternities in America. Based on this trend, it’s totally understandable that a lot of us are angry about what we’re seeing and many of us are also asking questions about what’s causing this “spike” in terrible on and off-campus behavior.
Here is one answer to that question and two follow-up predictions. The answer is that there’s literally no evidence and no really reliable way to know whether this trend is rising or falling. The very secret nature of fraternity hazing and the decades of horrible activities that have never been measured make that impossible. But here are the predictions: no media outlet (except WABC with this newsletter) will explain that to its audience, and that same media will now endeavor to report on every real and imagined fraternity misdeed for weeks to come. We don’t do perspective very well in this business and it’s an example of a form of media malpractice just as bad as political bias and defamation.
The sad thing is that media outlets can still create compelling and thoughtful coverage of everything from the alleged Cornell gang rape case to the Penn State “cocaine frat” story without trying to make it a political story or a national morality play, let alone a general panic. As comedian Chris Rock often jokes: “If you know a guy killed one person, don’t go around saying he killed ten!”
I don’t like public frenzies in any situation. The real news is exciting enough.
