I Can't Think of a Catchy Title - The News

RSS Bot · March 12, 2009

Ever notice how the news tends to trivalize and sensationalize every story? Ever notice how the evening news will take the smallest most insignificant story and turn it into their top story and focus on it for nearly 3 hours?

Me too.

I can't pinpoint exactly when it happened, but the news is definitely a lot different now than it was even ten years ago. The anchors that I grew up watching, many of whom were the best in the business in the Boston area, have either retired or have been fired. Instead, we have a bunch of people at the news desk who look like they just got out of college giving us our daily dose of "news". Instead of focusing on real stories, they focus on the celebrity gossip. Instead of telling us what's happening in the world around us, they focus on the daughter of a fire fighter who just lost his life in a fire, melodramatically playing some sad sappy piano music as a lead in to the story where the young woman is bawling her eyes out.

This is not news.

Now, to be fair, this is really only one station in Boston that does this the majority of the time...starts with a "s" and ends with an "even". So anyone from Massachusetts will probably know exactly what I'm talking about. However, channel 5 and 4 (our two other big broadcast news channels) have been inching slowly but surely towards this style of news in the last few years. What's worse, now with the advent of digital TV, all the channels, with the exception of 5, have upgraded their sets to have these semi-futuristic news layouts...channel 7 is our worst offender yet again as most of the news cast is seemingly done in front of green screen with multitudes of graphics. All style and no substance there.

Hell...even this morning I was a bit dismayed at what was being considered "news"! Sarah Palin's daughter broke up with her boyfriend, and it was a top story! This story belongs on the half hour celebrity gossip programs, not in my news. Last week was another good top story about Melinda Gates wanting an iPhone. Please...someone tell me why this is news?!?!?!?

Here's a taste of what channel 7 offers us everyday...and keep in mind, all the female anchors look like this woman!

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?a...;showentry=5893