It seems that the news media is forever in a loop. It’s like the producers are saying “The election is over, let’s find out what could go wrong next.” Or “people are losing their homes and jobs, let’s focus on who created that problem and ignore the people who are figuring out creative ways to deal with the problems facing us.”

Thanks for the post and all of your great information.

Lorraine Grulas last blog post..Is it Possible for TV News to Thrive Without Exploiting Fear?

Could you elaborate on your points above? I find your writing to be far too brief on these topics to understand where you are coming from.

Tim, you could not be more correct about rubbernecks.

Early in my career, (eons ago when video cameras weighed 50 lbs.) I ran around to every murder, accident, fire, storm and random calamity scene in a 300 mile radius.
I had never heard the word rubberneck until then and I was dumbfounded at how many people like to gawk. It does not matter if it is 3 a.m. and sleeting, people will pour out of their houses in their jammies and curlers if the commotion is big enough.

They often act like it is a party scene. People will get in front of the camera and wave to their mom even as the police are hauling a dead body out of the woods.

Irritated the bejoozies out of me.

TV news executives only think about the production value of the show. In other words, how fancy and flashy everything looks. When they want to “improve” the show, they always turn to fancier sets, fancier graphics, new music that’s more dramatic, new hair-dos for the anchors. Younger anchors with bigger boobs. All that superficial, show-biz crap. They NEVER EVER discuss raising the quality of journalism. Journalism never even gets mentioned as something we should be doing. In fact, I sat in a station-wide meeting once and listened to the guy who was the corporate head of the entire news division (company owned about 15 TV stations and a bunch of magazines) and he said, “Journalism doesn’t work.” Seriously. He chuckled at the notion of spending time doing real journalism. Ridiculed the station’s reputation back in the early 80′s when we put corrupt politicians in jail and won Peabody awards.
Guess which old-geezer, been-there-forever employee stood up and debated that issue with him? And wouldn’t shut up? Kept debating. Told him he was wrong. Go ahead and guess.

TV news sucks. Restricting corporate ownership is the best solution. Bringing back the Fairness Doctrine won’t really cut it. That’s the solution you hear bantered about but that is not enough. You have got to go back to local ownership and not letting 3-4 companies control the whole frigging media.

In case you did not know, the Fairness Doctrine was an FCC regulation that had been in place since the advent of TV and was done away with during Ronald Reagan’s term. The F.D. made all media outlets give equal time to liberal and conservative views or they could not keep their federal license. You had to present verifiable data on fairness every year at license renewal time to the FCC. In addition to doing away with the F.D., they also loosened the restrictions on ownership and one company could gobble up as many media outlets as they wanted.

The media conglomerates of today fight against bringing back the F.D. but many people who hate the media want to make it law again. But I do not think you can regulate your way into quality TV news. That would only give you a million Alan Colmes clones.

I think you have to have owners who give a darn about their local communities and journalism. But local TV news does not make enough money to make that feasible anymore. Back before cable TV, local stations could turn a good profit, but not today. They barely squeak by and lots of them lose money.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are some of the best journalists in America in addition to being absolutely brilliant comedians. I LOVE them and agree that many people watch them because they are the only “news” you can watch with out wanting to upchuck.

Now that I am done with War and Peace, I’ll get back to work.

Lorraine Grulas last blog post..Video Production

Have you ever heard the news story that an accident happened by a lemonade stand? But if there is an accident on the side of the road more people slow down for that than a cold drink from a kid. And the odds are there will be a second accident between the “rubberneckers”. Its sad

**I’ve never seen it in writing but the RULE IS: Stop for kids selling lemonade***

I wish the major networks would AT LEAST remove the “coming up” lead ins, they must waist 6 min of air time telling me the weather and sports are coming at the end of the program. I havent timed it yet but I will.

Colbert is great!
Tim

It’s the news’ version of a squeeze page. You have to subscribe to find out what’s inside. And usually the items are: 1. poison 2. broken window 3. butcher knife 4. clothes dryer and other things you knew already.

Sometimes I think we’re just a bunch of monkeys throwing our own poop at each other.