# I'm done with network news broadcasts **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 31, 2026, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717 "2026-08-31T15:39:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/21 "2026-08-31T16:44:13Z")
One added bonus to giving up local and national broadcast news is that you are not deluged with political ads when election season rolls around. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/22 "2026-08-31T16:44:31Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Well, that’s funny, because I happen to have Mr. McLuhan right here… That just made me do a spit take. Well played, well played! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/23 "2026-08-31T17:00:56Z")
Local news (or, more appropriately, “lo-cal news”) can get particularly bad. The one station that comes in reliably in this wood of the necks is the Fox affiliate, which is useful for _The Simpsons_, or a nice football game to not look at for 90% of 3 hours. When I have looked at their news, there is a lot of in depth coverage of homelessness (_those people are so awful, crapping wheresoever they feel like it, and leaving used syringes lying everywhere, something needs to be done about them_) or the latest outageous robbery/burglary/arson (with obligatory flashing police car lights, to make sure you notice), but not much meaningful, unless it fits their agenda. There is an ABC affiliate that comes in well a lot of the time, which of course is Sinclair, another RW conglomerate. Sometimes we can get the NBC affiliate, and their quality is impressive compared to the others, but there is still some bias. In the end, written news is always better, especially when you can skim over the filler content, but even then, you only get what they want you to see. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/24 "2026-08-31T17:10:07Z")
John Prine had this figured out a long time ago. “What’s he talking about?” I wondered. _Blow up your TV, Throw away your papers, plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches.._ ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/25 "2026-08-31T17:17:06Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > One added bonus to giving up local and national broadcast news is that you are not deluged with political ads when election season rolls around. I have a black belt in mute-foo. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/26 "2026-08-31T17:19:02Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Instead, we’re deluged with dire warnings of bad weather with MILLIONS OF PEOPLE IN DANGER! With nary a dropped-in mention of AGW, right? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/27 "2026-08-31T17:22:06Z")
I’ve been watching the national news for over 50 years. My grad school dorm had a tv in the lounge - no individual had one - and a group of us would go to dinner and then watch two newscasts, one at 6:30 and one at 7:00, to see the latest about Watergate. I’m as disgusted with what is now called news as anyone here. My wife recently went out to a concert with friends, meaning that she missed the news. I told her she therefore missed a story about a dog getting rescued from a hot car. That wasn’t even part of the “good news tonight” segment, but in the earlier major news bits. A 50-year habit is hard to break, especially for a news junkie, but I need to go cold turkey. A story about a turkey being served cold is probably coming up anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/28 "2026-08-31T17:23:45Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Even that is unnecessary. The weather app on my phone tells me what the meteorologist on the local news says and probably there are other apps for traffic and sports, though neither really is a concern for me. One of our TV meteorologists is very good about explaining the cause for our local weather, boring as it usually is, much better than I can get from my phone. My wife is a weather junkie, so she records the local news so we can fast forward to the weather. > [@Shoeless](#): > > One added bonus to giving up local and national broadcast news is that you are not deluged with political ads when election season rolls around. You’d have to give up TV in general for that. My free streaming was full of political ads until just recently. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/29 "2026-08-31T17:25:55Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > One of our TV meteorologists is very good about explaining the cause for our local weather, boring as it usually is, much better than I can get from my phone. My wife is a weather junkie, so she records the local news so we can fast forward to the weather. Sure but I really don’t care about the causes for the weather; I just want to know how warm or cold it’s going to be and whether rain or snow is expected. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/30 "2026-08-31T17:36:28Z")
My wife watches the CBS Sunday Morning show every week. It’s full of light, fun stories, with almost zero politics or any other heavy news. Which is just the way she likes it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/31 "2026-08-31T17:49:32Z")
Pretty sure I’ve been insisting for some twenty years that journalism doesn’t happen on television. Not true journalism anyway. Television “journalism” probably puts sugar on its oats. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/32 "2026-08-31T17:51:09Z")
We also watch the weekly CBS Sunday Morning program (on the Paramount+ app, so no commercials). We too like the variety and the sometimes slyly humorous segments, plus the obituaries that we missed during the week. Oh, and the closing nature segment. I recall my parents watching it decades ago, back in the Charles Kurwalt days. I can now understand why it appealed to them. On the other hand, my gawd, I’ve turned into my parents. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/33 "2026-08-31T17:51:42Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Pretty sure I’ve been insisting for some twenty years that journalism doesn’t happen on television. You’re mostly right. I do tip my hat to the foreign correspondents who put themselves in very dangerous places. It’s a shame that their stories are cut to the bone. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/34 "2026-08-31T17:55:58Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I realize that a half hour is not enough time to go deep on all topics, but perhaps if they would stop doing bits about Harry and Megan and the latest celebrity angst, they could expand on meaningful stories a bit. Agreed, and that begs the question, why do they waste time showing what amounts to “previews” of what news they will be showing after the commercial break? When they come back after the break, the news is hardly any longer than the previews they showed before the break. Here in Chicagoland, CBS 2, NBC 5, and ABC 7 all do that. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/35 "2026-08-31T18:04:07Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > > [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > > > She is a 22-year old psychic who comes on the program and does readings. This, on a news program. > > I’m actually sitting here with my mouth hanging open in disbelief. I would love for you to watch this clip and comment: > **[Rose the Reader talks to FOX 2's Liz Lewin](https://www.fox2detroit.com/video/1153204)** > > Rose the Reader joined FOX 2 with a special reading for Liz Lewin. Visit Rose the Reader on Facebook. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/36 "2026-08-31T18:15:43Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Agreed, and that begs the question, why do they waste time showing what amounts to “previews” of what news they will be showing after the commercial break? To keep you from changing the channel. My wife sometimes watches the ABC network newscast, and that’s a particularly odious tactic of theirs: “After the break, a product recall you’ll need to know about!” Then, commercials, and after that commercial break, they _still_ don’t cover that story, until after the _next_ commercial break. The structure of the ABC broadcast is that they cover the top 2 or so stories in the first 7-8 minutes of the broadcast, before going to the first commercial break. From that point forward, it’s 60 seconds of news, followed by a 3-minute ad break, then another 60 seconds of news, and another ad break. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/37 "2026-08-31T18:29:45Z")
Another thing that ABC Nightly News does is to end the broadcast on a story from social media. I think their audience isn’t on social media so thi may be the only way they will find the story. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/38 "2026-08-31T18:56:46Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Sure but I really don’t care about the causes for the weather; I just want to know how warm or cold it’s going to be and whether rain or snow is expected. In the Bay Area a forecast like that would be very short. Around here a two degree increase in temperature is a warming trend. We don’t have weather, we have climate. Snow? Hah. Rain = this time of year a drop or two is big news. I’ve lived in the middle of Illinois, in New England, and in NY and NJ, so I know what real weather is. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/39 "2026-08-31T19:22:06Z")
I stopped watching the local news almost 20 years ago. I couldn’t take the stupidity anymore. Every story had a second part where the anchor basically said “we now take you to some random idiot we found on the street, who is going say something completely obvious, adding nothing to this story. Take it away, Bob!” If they would knock it off with this garbage, they could fit twice as many stories into the broadcast. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717/40 "2026-08-31T19:27:19Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Sure but I really don’t care about the causes for the weather; I just want to know how warm or cold it’s going to be and whether rain or snow is expected. I completely understand that POV, though I don’t personally share it. For most people, just being able to reliably know what the weather is going to be is enough. I’ve been a lifelong weather nerd, and I had intended to go into meteorology as a career, until I got intimidated by how much high-level math and physics was involved in getting a degree. Thus, I do appreciate TV meteorologists who explain the “why,” especially when it’s during severe weather. Here in Chicago, WGN (the major independent station) has traditionally had a strong meteorology department, which was run by local weather legend Tom Skilling for decades. WGN is also the only local news I watch, as they generally have a strong team; despite now being owned by Nexstar, and having laid off several excellent journalists and meteorologists earlier this year (in what seemed to be a cost-cutting move), I haven’t seen a noticeable decline in the quality of their news or weather coverage. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-done-with-network-news-broadcasts/1032717.md?page=3)