Newhouse News Service’s Bruce Taylor Seeman’s very good article (via WHAC)throws out a rather innocent lead graph…

It’s opinion. It’s conjecture. It’s a tidbit from the newest poll or another alarming image — delivered with rising drumbeats — from the day’s top story. It’s today’s 24-hour news.

But quickly goes in for the kill…

After a disaster, “television news shows the same images repeatedly — with virtually no additional information each time,” said Frank Vespe, executive director of the TV-Turnoff Network, a group that calls for less TV watching. “The horror is beaten into you with no corresponding increase in knowledge. The message you receive is that the world is big, dangerous, scary and completely out of control — a message that is profoundly disturbing.”

The last third of Seeman’s article should be clipped and put on the poster boards off all three cable news channels…

But it’s the content and presentation of news, not just its ubiquity, that troubles those who track the evolution of the information age. Cable TV news in particular, critics say, is often speculative, combative and — to fill the hours of broadcast time — repetitive.

“One of my colleagues and I have been throwing around a concept called `phantom news,”‘ said Robert Simmermon, an Atlanta media psychologist. “Basically, what’s happening is, there’s less there than meets the eye. With 24 hours of news, and nothing breaking, we go over and over it again.”