News can not be created out of nothing, but it can nonetheless be made to be what the news organization wants it to be. There is much news material from which to choose. By selection of certain stories it is possible to highlight and draw attention to issues considered important by the media, particularly the national media. Local stories may influence or even overwhelm a community, but national news stories can set the national agenda.
When two heterosexual thugs brutally murdered "openly gay" Matthew Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming, the Associated Press ran national news stories everyday for a week. In the course of the aftermath of the crime, the Washington Post ran 80 stories on the murder. By constantly asking various people in interviews whether the opposition to pro-gay legislation by the Religious Right contributed to a national mood that made violence against gay people acceptable, the media subtly reinforced the notion that this was indeed the case. Smiling Katie Couric of NBC's Today Show in an interview with the governor of Wyoming made this unfair assertion in the form a question.
Consider another case. In rural Rogers Arkansas, openly gay Davis Carpenter lured 13-year Jesse Dirkhising with the promise of a weekend job. The boy, who resided in a small trailer with his mother, father, and two siblings, was elated at the prospect of earning a few extra dollars. Sadly, on September 26, 1999, police found Jesse's limp body. The boy later died in the hospital. Carpenter and his friend Joshua Brown had bound and gagged Jesse and sodomized him to death.
The story did not make the Associated Press's national news stories. The Washington Post carried only one story on the matter. The Today Show did not invite Dirkhising's parents on the air so that Katie Couric could sympathize with their suffering. There was essentially no national news coverage to speak of.
Neither Matthew Shepard nor Jesse Carpenter deserved their fates at the hands of vicious criminals. Those opposed to gay-rights legislation are no more responsible for Shepard's death than pro-gay rights advocates are for Dirkhising's death. However, Shepard's death played into the hands of those who wish to portray homosexuals as victims where Dirkhising's did not. News events in support of the national media's agenda are given more play.
This is not necessarily an evil, mean-spirited, or conspiratorial exercise. News organizations ought to exercise discernment. The more conscientious a news organization, the more carefully it will select which news to present, which news events are important, which news items the citizens need to know nationally. Consciously or unconsciously, these decisions will reflect the agenda, biases, and beliefs of the news organization.
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