Mini-rant warning, and apologies if this is the wrong forum. I am not a TV news watcher whatsoever, but my significant other is a junkie. Most of it to me isn’t news anyway and a waste of time, just a way to hook viewers and sell ad dollars. I will tolerate 30-60 minutes of it a day just so we can spend some time chatting after dinner before settling in to what we will watch or do for the evening.
But it gripes me to no end to hear from a newscaster “Here’s what you need to know”, or “We’ll tell you what you need to know”, as a way to start a story or tease one before commercial.
How the hell do you know what I need to know? Can’t I decide that? So incredibly annoying, or maybe I’m the only one and should seek consulting haha.
I remember the days when news was news and not a profit-maker for the local affiliates and networks. I’d probably watch if that was still the case.
Local TV news has never been a profit-maker, and of late it has become a venue for spreading conservative propaganda by the Sinclair Media Group. Local print media was always more crucial in delving into politics and civil affairs but of course local newspapers are declining even while be consolidated into large media consortiums. Agreed that the sensationalistic and falsely authoritative tone of TV news is obnoxious, generally lacking in substance, and only occasionally correct, but at least it has not yet degenerated into the conversational gang-bang of pundits all forcefully expressing the same opinion in increasing degrees of stridency or hosts fawning over a particular political figure in hope of getting some ‘retweets’, so there is that, at least.
I have not found the local news channel we watch using that kind of intro to news stories. I do see it more and more often on the NPR news site. But they actually are pretty good at providing mostly wheat and minimal chaff.
Local news can be of highly varying quality. Their only absolutes seem to be traffic, weather and sports, and whether the news includes anything other than shootings or other violence depends, I expect, on what the owners want shown. I often get more by reading the little reader line at the bottom than what the newscasters are saying.
Just a hook to try to keep eyeballs. It’s become a joke: “this just in: one incredibly common thing in all American households that you may be using at this very minute can instantly kill you. Tune in at 11 to find out what it is.”
8:00: “Are your socks killing you? Find out at 11!”
9:00: “Could the socks you wear every day be taking years off your life? Find out at 11!”
10:00: “Is a chemical used in the manufacture of socks slowly leaching into your bloodstream and shutting down your vital organs over the course of decades? Find out at 11!”
11:00: “No.”
I posted in another thread recently how I believe all TV “news” is, by its nature, pretty much useless. As the OP says, it’s passive. It’s taking what they want to give you, at their pace.
So, I read. Nearly exclusively. There can be bias in print, for sure. But at least it’s not passive.
I love it (I really don’t) when the local news uses a chunk of their time to promote their network’s upcoming prime time shows, pretending that it is news.
“…and tonight on Dancing with the Stars, don’t miss…”
Bill Burr had an interesting take on how he doesn’t like the news on a podcast appearance. It was basically “why do I need to know about something horrible that happened halfway around the world that I can do absolutely nothing about?”
David Muir (or whatever his name is) spends 20 seconds telling/hinting/insinuating what you need to stay tuned for over the commercial break, then comes back and spends 10 seconds on the story.
Hey, Asshole! You could have told us twice as much about this 8 minutes ago!
And the local weather people… They say the same thing three times, just with a different map behind them each time.
It’s clearly an example of linguistic manipulation. What is that technique called where you state something to someone in a way that makes them tend to buy into what you’re saying? It’s similar to Neuro-linguistic programming. TV news is full of this.
And, of course, as a Doper you are immune to this, aren’t you?
I’ve LONG hated the news-site headlines I see everywhere now that say “What you need to know…” or “Here’s what to know about…” whatever the issue du jour is. It’s the laziest gimmick but unfortunately it’s shown to have staying power. I didn’t know it was also a thing on local TV news but I’m sure I’d hate it just as much there. Grrrrr…