Why I don’t watch network news shows anymore

[ksmith]

TODAY Show this morning. Captive audience, me.

Newsbreak with Savannah Guthrie (SG).

Very short segment about, iirc, Newt Gingrich/Republican primary race: maybe 15 seconds, film footage with SG voiceover.

Very short segment about President Obama’s speech y’day in Kansas: maybe 15 seconds, film footage with SG voiceover.

Segment about Alec Baldwin getting tossed from his flight for refusing to turn off his iPad: several minutes, including interviews by an on-site reporter with 3 other passengers.

I realize morning shows specialize in infotainment, but this was the “news” portion.

It’s styrofoam for the mind.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

Comments

[michaeldthomas.livejournal.com]

It's worse on WGN. I have a little less brain every morning.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I used to watch WGN for the weather, but I couldn't take the rest of it so I stopped. Now I fire up the laptop and get news/weather online.

It's sad.

[naomikritzer]

I almost never turn on the TV news, though I catch it in airports, at the health club, etc. I am always FLOORED by how vapid it is.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Only national news I watch is PBS News Hour. We do turn on the local news to find out if they are showing evacuation routes out of town . . .

Mostly it's court stuff. As long as they are showing mug shots, I leave the sound muted.

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

I watch the local news for weather, but that's pretty much it.

[scottakennedy.livejournal.com]

"Styrofoam for the mind" is a nice way of putting it. Heh.

I now find the news that's most interesting to me ... through links from my twitter feed. Even other news sites I used to frequent (HuffPo, Salon) seem to be succumbing to the styrofoam model.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Actual news coverage costs money. Reporters want to eat and pay their rent. They can do ten fluff pieces in the time it takes to do one in-depth piece, but they won't get paid ten times as much for that in-depth piece.

[scottakennedy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've got an old college friend who works as a producer on the NBC nightly news with Brian Williams. Before, when she went to produce a story, she had a cameraman, a sound man, an editor. Now she's sent out to do all those jobs herself, digitally (and, in her opinion, not as well as those pros). She's given a set budget, and as many stories as she can cram into that bugdet while doing all this extra work is what she has to do.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know! It's so frustrating to see a segment that might be of actual importance--even if it's slightly fluffy local stuff--and they cut away without telling you anything more than a headline.

You get a promo teaser: "Up next, how your trash can cost you money!"

And then the entirety of the actual 10-second spot is a guy from the local recycling council saying, "If you don't sort your recycling, you may get a fine." But they don't say what to sort, or how to bag/tie/package it.

I watch the morning news for the weather and traffic. Everything else is crap and better gleaned from online sources.