“The High School Model Of Media Heirarchy”

While covering the Michael Jackson trial, NPR correspondent Luke Burbank discovered “The High School Model of Media Heirarchy.” He says “there were over 2,000 credentialed media here in Santa Maria covering the trial, and as with high school, there was a definite pecking order. All the cliques were represented: the hotties, smart people, rebels and burnouts. Like high school, everyone was keenly aware of where they stood on the social ladder, and spent most of their time obsessing over it.”

Baristanet has a handy guide to the pecking order: The network TV anchors are the football quarterbacks/head cheerleaders, the cable TV anchors are the other members of the football team/cheerleading squad, the national newspapers are the yearbook staff, the foreign reporters are the exchange students, and the radio folks are the drama club. A must-read…