Wednesday, October 19, 2005

A few things about TV news...

God, how I hate TV news. With the exception of Keith Olberman, you could start a reality show called "Last Newsman Standing" where all the TV news people are put on an island and battle to the death and most people with think it's a natural continuation of the morning or evening news.

It's wretched. Does anyone watch and actually think they're being informed about what's important in the world? Most TV newscasts show high-speed chases, the scary black guy of the week, the scary disease of the week, the scary sports story of the week...

Okay, maybe the sports aren't scary. But, honest, short of sports and weather, it's all just a scare-fest. Studies have been done which show that the scarier TV news is, the higher their ratings are - so, they make it scarier. As long as you're scared, you'll watch. This, of course, only helps maintain the status quo, which for your information is the thing you really should be afraid of: the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and your liberties being stripped away one at a time.

... but that's not what gets me the most.

The thing that bugs me the most is the development in the last decade that insists that TV news personalities (which is all they are these days) should have... personalities. They should be funny! And goofy! And sneezy! And Doc!

It's enough to make you want to puke!

I see this in the morning at the gym. Our local Fox channel has the most insipid news staff and their commercial literally shows them as buffoons! Well, I don't want a buffoon to give me the news! Neither should you! You should want your news to come from an intelligent source - not from a clown! So stop watching that shit, folks! Hit them where it hurts: at the ratings! Maybe (naive as this may sound) we can then have an intelligent delivery of the news on TV.

Until that day, there are still newspapers and the Internet(s).

I'm pretty sure Olberman's gonna get canned any day now...

1 comment:

Jenn from WA said...

So in the state of Washington, we have Fox TV as well (who doesn't have it, right?). Anyhow, my friend Mike and I lovingly call the Fox channel the "beautiful people" news cast. Because, while they are quite attractive, they are as dumb as a post. And clearly only reading what's being handed to them instead of, god forbid, thinking.