Nor’easters is not a new term, btw. Older than you are, I’m positive.
Not irritated now, but my thoughts ran to what you said - “How is some kid in a well in Midland, TX national news? And why does it necessitate 24/7 coverage?”
It was then that I realized a lot of “national news” stories are essentially local stories writ large. That au pair (or whatever) who killed the kid. Lorena Bobbit. Missing white woman #253 (and counting!) It was probably this way before baby Jessica, but it was that story that brought this facet of national news stories to my attention.
I actually yelled at the TV the other day because of the news story they were showing. “Thieves and hackers will use your car’s electronics to carjack you! Now, there hasn’t been a single reported case of this happening as of yet, but you should still be SUPER TOTALLY SCARED!”:rolleyes:
Just had one last week on NPR. Talking about Crawford and how poor blacks are still being oppressed. They talked to people that had multiple parking/traffic tickets that were never paid PLUS these people never went to court. So when they are arrested on the bench warrant of course it is because they are poor - not because they repeatedly break the law and never take care of it.
If your “news story” consists of a list (Five ways ebola can make you thin!), I’m probably not interested.
I’m also seeing a lot more headlines along the lines of “Man run over by car…you won’t believe what he does next!”
It would be one thing if these things were only on clickbait type websites. But when they pop up on a list of “Top Headlines” for a major news organization, that outlet loses my respect.
The Boston marathon bombing trial could be moved out of Boston so the suspect can get a fair trial . I could care about the SOB getting a fair trial ! The victims
will have a hard time going to another city and they should be thought of first ! Screw the terrorist !
So you know how we had a blizzard at the end of January? WMUR ran a story about a couple who was expecting a baby, and how the woman was due then so they had this elaborate plan to get to the hospital if she went into labor during the blizzard. She didn’t.
But then they did an update about how good the plan would have been had she gone into labor during the storm.
And then they did a second update when she actually had the kid during another of these endless storms, but didn’t have to employ the plan then, either.
Yep. They were on the news three times over a stupid plan that never had to be put into place. :rolleyes:
I saw a couple of those on LIVE TV that really were interesting!
First case: Some car chase. Live TV news copters in the sky, following the chase, broadcasting on LIVE TV. The guy drove fast on a freeway for a while, then drove onto some crowded city streets. Just like you see in movies – Drove through a crowded intersection, ignoring traffic signals, cars all around swerving all over the place to miss him, and this driver is zigzagging all around the other cars strewn all over the intersection (and still moving).
Damn that guy was a good hot-shot driver!
Then he turned into a smaller side-street, with some multi-story structures on each side, where he wasn’t immediately visible to the helicopter. And then, he never emerged from that side-street, and when the copter got overhead, he wasn’t in that block either! WTF? Where did he go?
Turned out, one of those multi-story structures was a parking structure. The guy turned into that, parked somewhere, and casually ambled into an adjacent department store. Somehow (it wasn’t explained), he was apprehended and arrested.
Then, not long after I saw that on TV, there was another chase, followed by a news helicopter, broadcast LIVE. This guy drove at high speeds on a freeway until he got out toward the edge of town. There, the freeway ended and became a four-lane country road of some sort (or maybe he turned off onto a country road). His route took him past a large fenced compound that looked like a large country park, or more likely the grounds of a country club type of place.
Guy drove his car off the road into a ditch, then jumped out of the car and over the fence. There, he ran across a large well-manicured lawn. In the background was a smallish cluster of palm trees, and beyond that a gazebo with a bunch of well-dressed people standing or sitting around it. We thought it might have been a wedding in progress.
Suddenly, three well-dressed men (in tuxedos!) took off from that group, chasing the guy running across the lawn. By this time, the cops had also jumped over the fence and were chasing him too. The guys in the tuxedo got to him first and tackled him and took him down.
This entire “story” started with someone trolling a message board (someone named CADMinistry posted on mommy message board Mumsnet that dinosaurs are a lie from the mouth of Satan, never existed, shouldn’t be taught in schools, blah blah blah). Mumsnet lost its collective shit over the troll, somehow The Mirror picked up on the story, which ABC then picked up on, then it became a thing.
All because some jackass trolled a message board.
I had half a mind to write an article explaining why this “story” wasn’t a story, but then I realized that a story about how a story isn’t really a story is itself not really a story, and I made a cup of coffee and played World of Warcraft instead.
Also clickbait, and whatever a celebrity is wearing.
The thing I fail to understand about any of the posterts above is “Why do you watch TV news??? You know what drivel it is. Turn it off. That’s what the button on the remote is for.”
I haven’t deliberately watched a minute of TV “news” in decades. Yes, I watch TV. Just not “news”.
In other breaking news: “Doctor, it hurts when I do this. Then don’t do that.”
I get recreational outrage. I do it sometimes too. I’m doing it right now. But it’s much easier to understand RO over things we can’t control (e.g. crazy drivers) than over things we voluntarily agree to do to ourselves (watch TV “news”).
I remember an incident where an old man who worked as a church caretaker was leaving his job one night and was set upon by a gang of skinheads who beat him savagely. Luckily for him the arrival of a couple passersby upon the scene ended the beating; otherwise he probably would have died.
The headline in the next morning’s Albuquerque Journal? “Albuquerque Plagued by Moths.” Seems one of the moths had fluttered at a guy when he went out to get his paper.
Springfield, Illinois’ State Journal-Register gives obscene amounts of attention to high school sports. If the Cubs win the World Series, and it happens on a Friday night, it will be on Page 2 of the Sports section. Page 1 will be high school football scores.
There are few places on Earth more provincial than the small-town capital of a state also containing big world-class city(s).
“We’re not Chicago and *damn *but we’re proud of that!” should be the Springfield motto.
See also Sacramento CA, Springfield MO, Tallahassee FL, Albany NY, and Carson City NV just to name the states I’ve actually lived in. There are plenty more.