I just got through watching a "breaking news" story on Fox News Channel about an airplane with its landing gear up. This "story" involved a good 20-25 minutes of watching a small airplane fly around burning its fuel and then landing. That’s it.
I don't seem to remember this being news back about 10 years or so ago. Now, in our world of 24 hour news coverage I ask, what is really news? Do we really need 4 separate 24 hour news stations? Is there really that much interesting, newsworthy things happening in the world? Or has our definition of what makes news sunk to such lows that 25 minutes is wasted on a damn Cessna with busted landing gear in Marietta, Georgia?
Now the same channel has followed up with another 15-20 minute discussion/news piece on if fashion models weight should be regulated by the government. Are these the issues facing the country? We have a war going on where soldiers are being killed daily, a debt that is so far in the toilet it will take decades to get out of, presidential campaigns are starting up and moving across the country, the entire country of Somalia is and has been in anarchy for 12 years, and it goes on and on. Forget all of that though; let’s spend 80 percent of our news intake on fashion models, Cessna planes and crazy astronauts.
Remember when you would hear the "This is an NBC News special report" or something like that and you knew something serious has happened. It would almost always send a chill down my spine just hearing that. However, now everything from a car chase in LA (a daily occurrence) to a warehouse fire in New Jersey (another daily occurrence) are treated as "breaking news" and "developing stories".
Maybe it is because I sit next to the TV at work and am subjected to this each and every day. But I am so, so tired of all these stories and all this effort being wasted on such stupid, non-news stories that do not belong on the air. There has to be a better use for this very expensive airtime. Don't you think?
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
96 Hours of News
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2 comments:
I am from LA and LOVE A good car chase. However, these lanign gear things.. i agree lame. I think they cut to these things in hopes you can see a cessna crash and blow up on the runway. And then apologize for the graphic new they just showed you. How can you NOT LOVE A HIGH SPEED CHASE??? disappointed in you harold
I watch Headline News and get the live story loop that's a rerun after 35 minutes. What I really hate is when they tease a story "Coming up next..." and then 4 commercial breaks later here comes the lackluster story with pop culture appeal.
I recommend watching the movie Broadcast News. Isn't it sad that they had a more of a moral voice about the news in the '80s?
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