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'''Media hypocrisy''' describes the tendancy of [[mainstream media]] outlets to make hypocritical critiques (usually in opinion pieces, but sometimes evident in the [[media bias|biased]] slant of otherwise 'factual' news stories), usually of [[goverment]] policies. The hypocrisy is cloaked by separating the articles in question either in space (different pages in a newspaper) or time (different programming slots). The hypocrisy is not intentional, but media outlets tolerate it in their efforts to [[sensationalise]] everything.
In particular, news outlets will target a government's responses to impending disasters. For a given disaster, they will print articles with one of the following themes:
*"Why didn't the government do more? Lives have been lost because of the government's poor forward-planning."
*"The government spent large amounts of money preparing for this disaster, and nothing happened. What a waste of money."
The second of the two responses ignores an obvious fact: a lack of detrimental consequences was probably caused ''by'' the government spending money preparing for it. No matter what happens after a disaster, the media can print one of these themes, maximising sensationalism.
Examples of the latter response include the Y2K bug, Bird Flu, and SARS.
== References ==
In particular, news outlets will target a government's responses to impending disasters. For a given disaster, they will print articles with one of the following themes:
*"Why didn't the government do more? Lives have been lost because of the government's poor forward-planning."
*"The government spent large amounts of money preparing for this disaster, and nothing happened. What a waste of money."
The second of the two responses ignores an obvious fact: a lack of detrimental consequences was probably caused ''by'' the government spending money preparing for it. No matter what happens after a disaster, the media can print one of these themes, maximising sensationalism.
Examples of the latter response include the Y2K bug, Bird Flu, and SARS.
== References ==