It turns out that most South Floridians don't know this, but it seems unique to the region that the local news media will hound victims and perpetrators of crimes, as well as their families. For example, if there is a knife fight at a school and one student is wounded and now fighting for his life in the hospital, you can expect to see footage of the reporter lamenting that she was not allowed in his hospital room; you will then see her outside the house of the alleged attacker's family, saying something like "Unfortunately, they don't seem to be answering the door right now, let's go talk to their neighbors." It's disturbing.
But the proverbial straw came two evenings ago as Kevin and I were watching the teaser for the 11 o'clock news: "Will LeBron join the Heat? We contact area psychics to get the answer."
Wha???
First of all, I pointed out that there must be bigger news that this to report - a hurricane in the Gulf, a recession, Iraq, Afghanistan, the World Cup...I could go on. Even more importantly, can you really use the term "news" with psychic proclamations? Kevin was quick to add, "What really gets me is that they are not just reporting what the psychics say - they were the ones to contact the psychics! Is that what goes for investigative reporting around here?" Apparently it does.
By the way, it seems that LeBron will stay in Cleveland for at least the next two seasons, where he will lead the Cavs to a pair of National Championships. You heard it here first, folks.
4 comments:
One can only hope that someday the networks will have a revolutionary idea--raise the ratings by putting on excellent news programs.
It's funny that XKCD just had something similar a couple weeks ago. It didn't talk about psychics though the rollover did say "News networks giving a greater voice to viewers because the social web is so popular are like a chef on the Titanic who, seeing the looming iceberg and fleeing customers, figures ice is the future and starts making snow cones."
http://www.xkcd.com/756/
Are you sure you're not accidentally watching The Geraldo Rivera Show? Oh dear. Did I just date myself completely or what?
Oh wow, have you got all day? It just so happens that criticizing local news is my favorite hobby. And congratulations, these two examples are WINNERS!!
Another of my recent favorites, was last Christmas, when a station reported that (and I quote) "This year, most shoppers are not planning to make any impulse purchases."
????
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