OT: Eithics and the new NEWS

[Greybeard]

The majority of our "news" for the 5 local stations deals with weather, "public interest" items, and "call for action/problem solvers/etc." type of reports.

It's funny, some of the stations even report on what the other stations are doing if it makes the others look bad. Talk about making your own news.

Recently, Channel 5 used a chatroom sting set up by a guy in Michigan to get men to come to a house looking for a liason with a boy. They filmed all of the men who showed up...

Then, they marketed their report by saying one of the perpetrators was from a prominent Kansas City family. Turns out that the son of the head of a prominent philanthropic foundation with the same lLast name, and had nothing to do with the "prominent" family, was the big story. They also went on and on about doing this to protect our children. However, they held the story for over a month to use it during sweeps week. Fortunately I didn't waste my time watching.

The other thing that burns me is all of the emergency reports on the coming snow storms that don't arrive. They talked all day about how bad it was going to be (at least 10+ inches) and we had less than an inch of snow. what's funny, is that ever station missed it.

Now, back to work...

[ February 19, 2004, 16:43: Message edited by: Greybeard ]

[Fyron]

Where is the killer bee invasion?

[Slynky]

Now you are going to get me started!

I don't listen to the news for several reasons:

1- Inaccuracy I can still remember when an escaped convict was running around our county several years back. I tuned to see if they had caught him yet. Finally, they did. Cornered him in the basement, handcuffed him, and took him away. Of course, looking for more info on the story right in our "back yard", I tuned to another station to hear them reporting he had been captured in the attic of the house. But that's not an isolated example. Over and over, you can hear different death tolls from accidents, or money taken from a bank, or the number of people at a rally. You really just can't believe but about half of what you hear or read.

2- Hype and Exaggeration As mentioned earlier...the weather is a prime example. In Atlanta, the favorite thing to say is, "Could there be snow in the forcast? Tune in at 11 to see." And the names of things when a few clouds appear on the horizon..."Stormwatch 2004" where the crew rolls up their sleeves and promises to keep us informed all night long of developments.

3- The Hooks You know what I'm talking about. "Is the Internet endangering the life of your 13-year-old daughter? See our story later on for a warning!" Followed by, "... story coming up!" Then, the "...after this word from our sponsor!" And even then, the first story up after the commercial isn't what they have been baiting you with. Actually, even when they say, "next", it isn't necessarily next.

4- Sports and Weather Yeah, I know I'm un-American and lack all manner of male libido when I say sports takes up too much time. In a 30 minute show, approximately, in America, 20 minutes of it is for actually content and 10 minutes is for commercials. OF that 20 minutes, they devote about 8-9 minutes to news, 3-4 minutes to weather, 4-5 minutes to sports, and the remaining 2-3 minutes to human interest. That's just too much. Sports is a waste and I can reduce the weather to about a 20-second report when I relay it to my wife. "Rain supposed to be coming in tomorrow afternoon or evening. Won't freeze, though. Next day's supposed to be nicer, though...I think they said in the 50s." There! Done!

5- Live Reporting There's an aggravation for sure! Would someone please explain to me what the point is of the average live report!?!? Say a robber has been shot and taken to the hospital. The stations says, "And now, for a live report, we take you to 'fillin the blank'!" Then we see 'fillin the blank' standing in front of the hospital. There, 'fillin the blank' recites facts that happened hours ago. BUT, it's a live report! Meaning it's being filmed even as we watch! Of course, forget the fact that the facts are no more pertinent than they would have been had it been reported from behind the desk!

6- Home Town Connection Another one that pi$$es me off! It goes a little like this: "An Arabian Airliner went down over the ocean and up to 200 lives are feared to be lost." (That's about it) BUT, just let them find out someone from Georgia--or even better yet, Atlanta--was on the plane! Then you can get another minute on the crash...of course, it's usually only a picture of the family, a report of why he was on the plane, etc. What amazes me is how news is hardly worth mentioning unless someone from the "center of the world--Georgia or Atlanta" is somehow in it.

Like I said, don't get me started! I'm not even sure how they look at themselves in the mirror. Throw them in the pig pen with lawyers, used car salesmen, and telemarketers for all I care!

[General Woundwort]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Where is the killer bee invasion?

It will get here just about the time the next Ice Age hits. No joke - I remember about the same time people were hyping the killer bees, they were also talking about global cooling and the advent of a new glacial period. My, how fads change in the space of a few decades...

[rextorres]

I don't watch broadcast news cause it sucks so I'll continue the digression.

We are overdue for the next ice age - based on core samples from the glaciers - the Last 11K years have been a relatively long time between the ice ages allowing humans to develop a civilization other than hunter gatherers.

An interesting idea is that Civilization - as we know it - could have developed in any interglacial period in the Last several hundred thousand years if there had been enough time. In other warm periods as soon as any hunter gatherers decided to venture out of his cave it got cold again.

A scary side note is that data shows that global cooling happens fairly rapidly in as little as a few decades.

No one knows how the green house gases will affect this ice age cycle but some scientists suggest that global warming is actually a precursor to global cooling. Global warming would shut down the gulf stream causing the northern latitudes to freeze.

Anyway I would place my bet on an ice age over runaway global warming due to green house gases as the likeliest global catastrophe.

[ February 19, 2004, 21:21: Message edited by: rextorres ]

[Rojero]

Now that we have the technology to actually survive the next ice age. Who do you think will be chosen to survive?

[Renegade 13]

Originally posted by se5a:
well said AT!
hell we have some nasty flooding going on in NZ, why dont they report that!

I heard about that! (a small 20 second blip 3/4 of the way through the news ) And I bet you didn't hear about our massive forest fires and flooding this year in British Columbia, Canada did you?

Anyways, I agree with you all. The news is mostly a waste of time.

[ February 19, 2004, 23:31: Message edited by: Renegade 13 ]