That's not "news"

[Scott Shepherd]

I hope this is read and commented on as it's typed, not tangents that will surely end up in a political statement, so I'll give it a try....

Anyone else driven insane but what news agencies pass off as "news"? I don't mean the typical political stuff, but just what they fill space with.

Yesterday I heard the "breaking news" on the radio at the top of the hour. Apparently it was an apartment fire in progress. Okay, that's news, I get it. However, at the next report, it was stated that the fire was out, it was external, no real damage, no one displaced from their homes. Just a minor fire to the siding.

Next hour, recount of the entire story. Next hour, same thing. For no less than 8 hours, this was the headline story.

To me, it's like saying "Someone ran a stop sign this afternoon, no one was hurt, no accident occurred, nothing bad happened", and then run that all day. I mean is a fire that didn't cause any injury, no one displaced, no real issue, really worthy of having on the news for 8 hours? How many calls do firefighters go on during the day that are bigger stories? Probably a lot. However I don't hear them on the news all day. I hear sirens all the time, but I don't hear them on the news.

Surely there HAS to be bigger local news in everyone's towns than "a kid dropped an ice cream cone today. He got another one, it's all good now", repeated hour after hour after hour.

[Mitchell Andrus]

That's why I don't watch the local news. In the NJ/NY area... every night... apartment fire, a cop shoots someone, a demonstration, weather. In NC it's downright numbing.

Aside from the "nobody was injured' stories, it drives me nuts when the interviewer primes the person telling his story with what to say. Wolf Blitzer has gotten so bad I can't stand watching him anymore. He'll drone on for a half minute and spill so much information that there isn't anything to add.

A great interviewer will set the premise, ask a simple question and shut up.
.

[Joe Leigh]

Also, when did weather become "news"? Doesn't weather happen every day?
Do we really need a live shot of some otherwise unemployable "reporter" standing in the rain for us to believe it's really raining? or snowing? or hurricaning??

[David G Baker]

I worked in TV News in the San Francisco Bay area for around 26 years and around 15 years of that in the field as part of a news camera crew. One of our major complaints was weather live shots standing in the rain getting soaked along with our very expensive gear so we could let the public know that it was raining out when all they had to do was stick their head out the door and see for themselves. Another one was a live shot with a reporter standing in the dark with just his face and body lit telling about something that happened four hours before near a phone booth similar to the one they were standing in front of. Then the reporter knocking on the door of a family that had just lost a family member in a tragic accident asking them how it feels to have lost a loved one is one that made me hate the business.

[Zach England]

Local TV news=murders, drug busts, house fires, care accidents, touching stories of kids with cancer and live spots from classic car shows

unless it has changed since I stopped watching it ten or more years ago (and I'm not yet 30)

[Ed Hazel]

However, at the next report, it was stated that the fire was out, it was external, no real damage, no one displaced from their homes. Just a minor fire to the siding.

Sounds like a good day!

[Pat Germain]

Here's how I see the current rules for what's "news":

1. Something bad happened
2. Something, anything, happened to someone famous

And, best of all:

3. Something bad happened to someone famous!

There are truly amazing, interesting and wonderful things happening all over the planet. You can find out about some of them, but you really have to dig through a lot of nonsense to find it. Too bad the big news outlets aren't interested in any of it.

I like to read "The Economist" to find out what's going on in our world. I have a subscription. It's a great magazine. I admit I typically don't take the time to read it every week. But I typically don't take the time to watch TV news either.

[Jim Rimmer]

May be a tangent but I am sick of the local news coming on and telling me who is going to be on, what they are going to tell me and then going to commercial. After the ad, the same stuff angain, one story, and commercial. No news, just what they might tell me and who is going to tell me.

[Don Alexander]

i quit wasting my time on that drivel over 20 years ago i have been happier ever since

[Roger Newby]

As long as we're venting (sort of) why do you get 2 min.of news and 5 min. of commercials

[John Coloccia]

People have the attention span of goldfish. It's not about news anymore. It's about moving from segment to segment in a smooth, coordinated way so that at the end you feel smart, for watching a news show, without actually having had to use your brain. It's just as well since you weren't paying attention. You were distracted by something shinny on the other side of the room...

That's what it seems their target audience is sometimes, anyhow. Is it any wonder that Jon Stewart is the most trusted newsman in the US today? I mean, really. Jon Stewart is heir apparent to Walter Cronkite's legacy?

LOL.

I really miss the news the way it was when I was a kid. I think most people would be happier if they stopped treating us like dopes and started treating us like grownups again.

[Scott Shepherd]

But don't you think somewhere out there, the person that's reading on putting on the content would just tell the people across from the table "That's not news, that's a conversation you have with a neighbor. A dog getting loose and then finding it's owner is not news.".

You'd think SOMEONE would say "I'm not reading that same story again", or something like "I didn't spend 4 years in college to call a person running a stop sign a news story".

Instead, they just keep spewing it out like mind numb robots.

I don't watch the news either, this was all radio reporting. I guess radio news people are just people that can't get jobs on tv because they aren't pretty enough?

So let's make this into the stupidest thing I heard on the news today thread if you all don't mind?

Stay tuned......

[Mitchell Andrus]

Actually, "News Radio 88" (am radio) in the NY market used to be the standard for radio. I haven't heard anything to match it in 30 years. When was the last time a 24 hour news station had a fan club?

http://donswaim.com/wcbsnewsradio88.html

NPR comes close in some of it's shows though.
.

[Tom Winship]

I just love the commentators who tell you just what the news means (as if you don't have the brainpower to form your own opinion). It is getting as bad in sports.

[Bryan Morgan]

If it bleeds it leads!

I never watch the news. I can't do it. Its either propaganda of some sort, some made up nonsense loosely based on events that happened, or trying to sell you some crap product. There is nothing newsworthy on the TV "news" (or internet news for that matter). I've been in the news before. They chopped up what I said to make whatever point somebody paid them to make. I've had family in the news. One situation was reported almost 100% incorrect. When I gave them hell about it I got the reporter to admit that nobody would give them an interview and they had to write something so they just made it up! I've had my area in the news with all kinds of details that were reported wrong but could have easily been reported correctly with a simple look at a map. There is no honor or integrity in "news" journalism.