(small rant) Sally and I are watching the local news...

[IzaSparrow]

on the "Around the Nation" we had stories on a car wreck in Fresno, CA, a synagogue burning in NY, a fire hydrant broke and flooded several streets somewhere else, and real time security cameras were installed somewhere else to help the (probably understaffed) police dept and residents think it's an invasion of privacy.

This is par for the course with the local news!

:grr: I'm going to pull my hair out! Why are these the goddamn stories they choose to cover? Are the people of Franklin County this dumb, or do they just not know what better news is?

[DarkTirade]

1. A little from column A, a little from column B...

:shrug:

That's the main reason why I started frequenting DU, actually. To try and get REAL news.

[IzaSparrow]

2. It just makes me scream!

Sally tries to keep me calm.

And, oh my god, when the weather gets bad, how they start going bonkers! Apparently when a bit of snowfall is happening that is what everyone wants to hear about for 20 minutes of the 25 minute broadcast.

Then they interrupt other programs with their "Weath-orgasms" to tell us the same shit that they just told us during the news.

:grr: <--this is an actual picture of me right now! haha

[DarkTirade]

3. I know. That's why I stopped watching. :P

Just annoyed the crap out of me. And I was tired of cleaning off the couch. :P

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. Time and tape

Time: They've got 2:30 or whatever for a segment, so they choose stories that fit that with as little editing as possible.

Tape: Are there good visuals? (At newspapers, we say, "Does it have art?")

Stories are also often selected because they'll make advertisers happy.

[IzaSparrow]

9. time is somewhat reasonable...

but we're in the digital age now. Why is "tape" a factor?

[Oeditpus Rex]

11. Figure of speech

"Images."

[IzaSparrow]

12. ok.

oh well. i don't see why the story needs to fit into a nice 2:30 package, but i get where you're going.

[Oeditpus Rex]

14. Same reason that newspaper stories have to fit on pages

in the allotted space, between the ads.

The teevee fucks actually have a bit of an advantage in that: They always know they're gonna have half an hour or an hour, minus commercials. With newspapers, editors find out a day or two in advance how many pages they're gonna have and how big the news hole's gonna be.

[SallyMander]

5. Why do you hate America???

:cry:

[IzaSparrow]

7. It's not America that I hate...

it's all those immigrants making it terrible! :sarcasm:

[Kutjara]

6. There are three cardinal rules of modern television journalism:

(1) Every story must be told from an emotional angle. Facts are boring to the average viewer. Feelings are interesting. Therefore, every story selected for broadcast must either be primarily about emotions or must be told in such a way that it provokes an emotional response. People don't want to think and they don't want to be confused about how they should feel. Keep it simple. And if you can provoke a tear, you'll win an award.

(2) Keep it local. People have trouble relating to events outside of their sphere of knowledge, so avoid mentioning such events if at all possible. News from the viewers' own city or county is best. News about their State is ok. National news is just about allowable, if it's kept simple and related directly to the viewers' city or county (and don't forget to tweak those heartstrings or provoke that outrage: emotion is key, after all). International news is of so little relevance to the average American that it might as well be a weather report from Jupiter. Only report what's going on in the rest of the world if Americans are involved or some American interest is represented. Otherwise, just forget it.

(3) Assume your viewers are cretins. Talk down to them and explain everything in the simplest possible terms. If you pitch your delivery as if you were talking to a slightly deaf five year old with learning difficulties, you'll not only be successful, you'll probably end up as the anchor on CBS Evening News.

[IzaSparrow]

8. You're putting it into better perspective for me.

Thanks Kutjara! ;-)

[kedrys]

23. So *that's* what's wrong with me

I think weather reports from Jupiter are endlessly fascinating.

P.S. You make the point extremely well and I agree with you. I don't watch the news anymore, except for KO.

[ThomCat]

10. If we had real news shows on TV

I think people's heads would explode at this point. :(

Everyone's been conditioned to be happy with distracting nonsense.

[IzaSparrow]

13. that's what i'm sooo mad about

:nuke:

[LeftyMom]

15. I don't watch that crap.

So far, the only downside I've noticed is that I don't always know when there's a storm blowing in the next day. I'm much more informed than most people who do watch the weather, traffic and waterskiing squirrels mess that is local news, thanks to the internets and my weekend subscription to our shitty local paper.

[SallyMander]

30. Hey, if you were that squirrel

you would think waterskiing was BIG NEWS! :P

[VenusRising]

16. And it doesn't matter which station it is, either.

They are all like that. I had to stop watching channel 10 after the reporter tore up a story on the air about roller coasters and head trauma after the two talking heads jovially decided it was crap because the leading scientist on the study didn't actually RIDE the coasters. :wtf:

Just turn them all off. It's a total suckfest when it comes to news here.

:banghead:

[Oeditpus Rex]

17. Did you know the Columbus Dispatch owns WBNS?

Nice, huh?

[VenusRising]

18. I never buy that POS rag.

I go with the free papers...The Other Paper, Alive, The Lantern. :)

What you say really doesn't surprise me, though.

[IzaSparrow]

26. I don't read the dispatch...

well, I take that back. We get the weekend edition for the Crosswords, the Comics, and the syndicated CarTalk column. The Alive used to be a great paper, then the Dispatch bought it. Now The Other Paper seems to be the only good paper.

[Kat45]

19. The local news here, lately the first 10 minutes is sports stories.

For quite some time, it was about the Patriots. Then it was about the Patriots and why they lost the Super Bowl. Today, it was about what they called tomorrow's two big stories: Roger Clemons having a hearing or something about his alleged steroid use and the head of the NFL meeting with Arlen Specter to answer his questions about why he destroyed illegal tapes the Patriots had made. Fucking ridiculous!

[IzaSparrow]

29. Last night...

before I turned it off, they interviewed two men that are producing "Tressel For President '08" bumper stickers, after the segment that showed former football players and associates on a cruise (to support the Spielman cancer fund).

I'll be excited when we leave Columbus, and it's football (sports) obsession.

[Lady President]

20. White Death

How can you expect the Columbus news stations to worry about national news when the white death is coming??! I'm looking out my window right now. There must be a 1/4" of snow-- with drifts up to a 1/2"! They need to use their time to explain how we need dress warmly when it's cold outside.

[SallyMander]

24. ...

:spray:

:rofl:



Hey, how are you doing?? :hug:

[IzaSparrow]

25. hahah

:rofl:
How's it going Lady Prez?

CSCC cancelled class today--due to power outages caused by the ice. Oh well, day off!

[hippywife]

21. Meh...

they do that crap here, too. Par for the expected course of the media these days.

Oh, and the ones that really get to me are 1.) "We bring you this scene of local carnage as a Channel 6 exclusive!" and 2.) "This tragedy elsewhere has a local Oklahoma connection." Bleh!

[IzaSparrow]

27. Yah..it's like

"I'll bet you aren't here! Look at all the blood spurting out of that one!" or "I haven't seen flames like that except in the latest Vin Diesel movie, now showing at XY Movie theaters until..."

[hippywife]

31. Even more than graphic descriptions

is the fact that they are bragging that all this carnage is our exclusive story. It's like a blown up and gory version of "Ohhh! We have all the best gossip!" Knowhatimean?

[mwb970]

22. Local news has been doing this forever.

As I have mentioned here before, when I was a kid in the 60s my parents referred to the local (Cleveland) news as "the fires", as in "Do you want to go to bed now, or stay up to watch the fires?" I never heard them call the local news anything else.

[IzaSparrow]

28. alright! new phrase learned today!

Me: "It's 6pm. Wanna watch the fires?"
Friend: "The fires?"
Me: "Yah, you wanna watch the fires being covered on the local news?"
Friend: :spray:


:rofl: I love it