Categories: OLD Media Moves

Same old story with biz media's Black Friday coverage

TheStreet.com media critic Marek Fuchs finds the same old coverage of Black Friday — full of retail industry-driven melodrama.

Fuchs writes, “The anecdotes about sleep-deprived shoppers skipping out on Thanksgiving dessert to go out and shop are so ingrained that the statics don’t need to bear it out. Reporters just need one or two hungry, shivering shoppers to interview.

“The Journal News, a Westchester County, N.Y., paper, cut right to the chase. It didn’t even bother naming a specific shopper in its lead:

“‘They’ll wipe the sleep out of their eyes and pull on layers of sweatshirts, sweaters and jackets.

“‘Then they’ll head to a favorite store and stand in line before daybreak with dozens of other shopping warriors waiting for a manager to slip a key in the lock, turn his wrist and let them inside.'”