Ah, the news. If it bleeds it leads. If it flows it goes. If it spurts it works. If it’s despicable it’s applicable. If it’s gory it’s the story. If its idiotic, chaotic or erotic, you can bet they got it.
Who made this monster we call the local news? Is it the producers of the shows? The advertisers? We the observers, clicking our remotes from car crash to murder scene to special reports on “hotel room stains,” are we to blame? No matter, I am sick of it. Our Atlanta local news programs, like most across the nation, have gone beserk, wacko, crazy. Of course, this is one story you won’t be seeing on 11 Alive anytime soon.
As I write this, I am watching a special report called, “The Quest for Bigger Breasts” on Fox 5 News. This cleavage, I mean coverage, like so many others on local news programs is thinly diguised as a health report but is just another example of the press gone bust (I was only watching this program because I try to keep abreast of all issues). These alluring bits show that ratings and capitalism have replaced such arcane concepts as journalism, idealism, heroism, or even realism. As every medium is now challenged to compete with the popularity of the internet, our local news stories are only getting more and more sensational. That’s bad news for integrity and that is double-D deadly.
Scandal Sheets and Tabloid TV have every Nielson-given right to cover the shock and shclock stories for our entertainment, but there is no longer a fence between these media and that of our local news channels. One can hardly watch a night of news without hearing at least one of the following words; sex, homicide, implant, dysfunction, or hemorrage.
Our local TV press have also attained an IRS-like power to do whatever they like under the guise of “important news.” We have all seen, for instance, incidences of TV shows being interupted with a “special report.” Yet, these special reports are no more than commercials for “the more complete story” at a later time. The JFK Jr. plane crash is a good example of this. A sad and tragic story yes, but worthy of breaking into programming? He was not a president nor a public official even. He made no decisions that affected any of us. Simply put, the news channels took the chance to grab the tragedy and turn it into their own ratings victory. And to add insult to injury, now I will have to wonder forever who was revealed when Scooby Doo removed the crook’s mask.
Another disconcernting thing about local news broadcasts is that if you dissect them, they make no sense at all. For instance, why do they always send out a reporter to stand in front of the building where something newsworthy has already happened? If I call my mom to talk about my finances, I don’t have to do it from a pay phone outside my bank. If I call my best friend Greg about a great movie I saw, I don’t feel the need to do it from the movie theater. Yet, news channels have reporters all over the place just to get the corresponding building or site into the background shot. Is that supposed to legitimize their professionalism? How dumb do they think people are? Pretty dumb i guess.
Also, the language that news reports are written with is so riddled with variables that it, in essence, negates itself in what it is saying. News reports depend on the sound bite of their words and not what is actually being stated. For example, during the recent Snowjam 2000 fiasco, I think it was Glen Burns who said: “Chances for snow are 60%, it might snow 18 inches or not at all.” I think possibly that almost every news channel has potentially a likelihood to more or less perhaps mislead us, maybe.
And what is it with personality-devoid news anchors? My internet friend C. Harmon swears that if you turned them around they would have keys sticking out of their backs. One of the channels has been featuring youth reporter Raven-Symone and she makes the regular anchors look all the more robotic and tiresome. It seems with all the handlers, makeup persons and stylists, they could at least make news anchors seem semi-lifelike.
Bottom line, news programs today are just canned, formulaic sensationalism. I yearn for the day when we can see the news team just be themselves, just be allowed to make a mistakes, and just go with their heart on what is a good story. It would be revolutionary for local news programming and I would surely watch.
Billy Murphy -- 2/11/00