Another thing I hate about local news - they think they have to stick a reporter in the middle of anything and everything. City council meeting? Get someone over to city hall! (Notes forum) Fuck the fact that the council meeting ended at 9:00 and the dickwad is standing in front of a dark, empty building! They’ve got someon on site, by god!
And another thing - the fact that the malls are stuffed on the day after T-giving is NOT NEWS! See, news is something that DOESN’T happen like clockwork! When the malls are empty, then send your bubbleheaded gal out there to cover it! (And, of course, you’d have to send someone out there because we’re so dense that unless you SHOW us the empty parking lots, we’ll have no clue what you mean when you say the malls are empty!)
And ANOTHER thing - why are all news stories “productions” now? I remember them doing a story several years ago. I don’t remember precisely what the story was about - water rationing? drought? - but the first full minute of the story (I kid you not) was several cuts to sprinklers - sweeping across full lawns, raining down on driveways, with the occasional doom-laden idiotic voice over - “water” (cut to another scene and watch several seconds of dancing, arcing irrigation) “in short supply” (cut to another scene and watch several more seconds of dancing, arcing irrifation) “wasted” etc etc etc. It was a story that didn’t even need a remote, much less a mini-movie for us to get the gist.
Jeez, I hate local news. The worst here is the local NBC affiliate.
And then we can get started on blatant falsification. Like that one idtio reporter who went out in a canoe and lots of raingear talking about how awful some storm was… followed by two guys in boots walking in the water not even ankle-deep right between her and the camera.
Listen, guys- if you want to confine us in the media to strictly reporting things that are “true,” and “not made up,” and “not pointless, crass attempts to scare you and drive up the ratings”… honestly, why do you even want a news media? (Uh, also, get people to stop watching it.)
It all pales in comparison to storm coverage.
While TV news is deservedly getting dumped on here, newspapers do things like this, too. Sometimes a reporter will go to the location where a story happened and file his story from there just so the dateline will be “Walla Walla, WA” instead of say, “New York,” where the story was written and reported from the paper’s office. It’s called a toe tap; it got a little attention during JaysonBlairIsAGiganticLiarGate.
It’s not a journalists job to be an expert in anything other than journalism. THey gather facts and put them into a coherent manner for public consumption. Mistakes happen, and it’s the source/interviewee’s responsibility to be sure that the journalist understands things (ie, limit the technical terms).
Also, the majority of readers of any given newspaper are dumb as bricks.
That’s not really an option when you’re given an assignment.
I don’t really agree with that. If I’m writing about something, it’s my job to understand it enough to explain it correctly. Mistakes do happen, but you can’t just let people talk over your head and then leave. As an interviewer, it’s incumbent upon you to stop people when they do that and explain to them that you need them to simplify.
I would like to see footage of those kids actually wearing that hood!
C’mon–chemistry isn’t rocket science. Most reporters had to take at least high school chem, no? I am sure that they are familiar (at least vaguely) of a lab hood.
And if they aren’t–shame on them for not asking for clarification.
I am soooo sick of storm coverage. The chick in the canoe (mercilessly lampooned on The Daily Show, and rightly so) was the worst. Cannot wait until winter here–and we get to watch snow flakes falling and the weather man telling us that snow is falling… :rolleyes:
This is why I get most of my news online or from the BBC off of NPR. Sanity saving.
Don’t blame the chick, necessarily. There is always a snotnose producer in the background who believes that a street in Passaic, NJ, flooded with only 12" of water does not make for impressive television and insists on Pumping Up The Visuals, or perhaps We Paid For This Canoe Rental, So Dammit, Get In The Thing.
And if you live in the NYC area, the MASSIVE STORM CENTER COVERAGE telling you that THIS COULD BE THE BIG ONE!!11! Seven, eight, nine times a winter. Riiight. Wake the kids, call the neighbors.
Ever notice how hurricane coverage goes in cycles. Every five years or so there’s a pretty big hurricane. It’s actually pretty normal. For six months after it, though, it’s “MY GOD A HURRICANE IS COMINGK OH NOES!!!” once a week.
Huricanes are pretty friggin comon. We get dozens a year. Even pretty powerful ones.
