6:08 p.m. - 2006-01-05
News at 11:00
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Currently Reading
The Bright Forever : A Novel
By Lee Martin
see related
RANTING, RANTING, RANTING,
ok, let me get to my point. I want to RANT about local television news and weather programs. I am almost positive that this is part of News Programing 101. First, everyone has to introduce themselves as if we don't already know who they are....they greet each other with Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening, How are you?, How was your time off?, What's your sign...etc. THEN, they have to tell you which of their co-horts are NOT there as if you can't see that someone else is sitting in that chair. I really don't care why they are not there, unless they had surgery, or got married or had a baby.
Our local televison stations like to talk about MICHIANA. We are about 9 miles from the state line to Michigan. Therefore, our area is known as Indiana-Michigan or Michiana....how nice.! Our local news, however, is 80% Michigan news. We will get the usual lead-in story bites of BIG FIRE DESTROYS FACTORY-THOUSANDS WILL BE OUT OF JOBS or POLICEMAN KILLED ON DUTY....You won't hear about the identity of the factory or the policeman for about another 20 minutes...First you will hear the same sound bite at least at every commercial break with video....the SAME video...OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Then when you finally get the story, the factory is in some town you never heard of, visited, or care to know about. And the policeman is from a small town in Michigan where you have never even been.
Our local stations (4 of them) all have about 90 minutes of programing in a row in the evening. They start at 5:30 P.M. 6:00 P.M., 6:30 P.M.. They use the same sound bites and video during each program. Occasionally, just to see if you are paying attention, they will talk about a special piece of news to be discussed just one of the 30 minute segments. Again, you will get the same video and sound bite in that 30 minutes...until the last 5 minutes when they will show the same video and tell you very little about what actually occurred.
We also get the "connection story". No matter what happens in the world outside of Michiana...they will find someone who has some connection with the event and then interview that person on what they think of Sunami or the Hurricanes or the dog show in England or the 2nd cousin of the Queen Mother of Timbuctoo.
Another thing I hate is the weatherman...excuse me, the METEOROLOGIST!!! I don't about your area but our people couldn't predict rain or snow even when they are standing outside in it!! They predict all kinds of dire events, avalanches, blizzards for days, rain that will make our houses sink into the center of the earth. They are NEVER right. I have noticed that some of the other people in our area feel as I do about the local newspaper. It has been putting a picture of one of the meteorologists in the weather section. His picture is in color and about a 5x7 picture. The map of the US showing the weather patterns was about 2x2. Several people wrote in to ask if they could have a larger weather pattern picture since we already know what Rick looks like. So now the US is about 2x3. They also feature a picture that a child has drawn of the weather and sent in....This picture is usually larger than the US map also.!!!!
I especially like when the news person or meteorologist has to use the station's helicopter to tell us about the weather. One of the stations has a HUMMER since they are manufactured here. But they never take it out in bad weather!!!
Another gripe I have is that they will try to be "artsy" with the video. They tilt the camera so you get a lopsided picture or zoom in on a small blade of grass when they are talking about the golf season and so on. And sometimes the video has absolutely nothing to do with the storyline.
My final rant is the horsing around among the news and weather and sports people. I really get tired of them socking each other on the shoulder or making cute remarks about the sports or weather and teasing each other until I could puke. It is like listening to little children bickering back and forth because they are bored. And then there are the puns. They will use a pun as the lead in to a story. such as. Nobody said Neigh when the horses were in the pasture. Oh barf!!!
Finally, we used to think this was just our town that produced the programs this way. However, we have noticed in our traveling, that every town seems to do the same thing. I bet they even do it where you live too.
Where is Walter Cronkite when we need him?
WHAT A MAN!!! WHAT AN EXCELLENT JOURNALIST!!!
I wish he would come back and give us the news properly.
