Whoever owns the news gets a say in what is reported. If the nets prefer audiences to stay in the lala land of fantasy wars, then reality will be ignored.
So when Good Morning America spends a whopping 12 minutes and 38 seconds on Disney’s new comic book movie Black Panther, it’s important to remember who owns ABC: the Walt Disney Company. Selling a movie to an audience is apparently more important than spending time reporting on the first military clash between Israel and Iran. From February 5 to February 12, Good Morning America only spent a grand total of 1 minute and 6 seconds on the direct battle between America’s ally and Iranian personnel.
Not that war is important or anything. But a superhero film that hasn’t even been released yet is clearly so much more significant to reality than, well, actual reality. On February 10, Israel launched “a large scale air raid in Syria” after one of its fighter jets crashed under Syrian fire. According to the Guardian: “Saturday’s violence was one of the most severe incidents involving Israel, Iran, and Syria during Syria’s seven-year civil war.”
An Iranian drone was also shot down over Israel on Saturday.
However, GMA spent only 1 minute and 6 seconds on this topic. What was more important? The Disney film. “There is so much good buzz about this film,” cooed anchor George Stephanopoulos.
In a 7-minute interview with Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman on February 12, Michael Strahan said, “First black superhero in his own movie, this is history.”
Boseman stated later in the interview about his role: “It can give you a certain type of confidence when you walk in the world. It also makes people that look like you see you in a different light and not judge you in a particular way.”
On February 8, journalist T.J. Holmes told the round table, “There is a cultural significance to this movie now. It expands horizons for the first time to see a black hero get this kind of treatment on the big screen.”
Again, it’s a comic book movie.
