Non-News

--- Breaking News ---

When news readers report on their own actions, particularly good works, it is not news!

One of our local affiliates, who reminds us at least 3 times a half-hour that they are "The most watched local news" has been spending the last three weeks, that's right three weeks touting the raffling off of One X-box with proceeds going to the stations much sponsored and reported on charity.

This has been one of the top three "stories" that the station has covered on each of their half-hours segments - morning, noon, evening, and night - for the last three weeks and every time it comes on my blood pressure rises. I would watch another channel but this is the station that does the least of these kind of stunts and is the lease tabloids of the stations. Because the only thing that bothers me more that making themselves news is new broadcast that make mountains out of hang nails and reporting breakthroughs in medicine that the same station reported as breakthroughs two years previous (yes, some of us have memories even if they don't.)

If you take an 30 minute broadcast and take the, at least, 8 minutes of commercials out and take out the 8 minutes of self promoting by the station. These promotions include items about the local station, network programing, news style report of "reality " TV (from own network,) and the loyalty building school visiting by weather people, reporters and helicopter pilots. There are about 14 minuets of news in the half-hour and most of that is exploiting peoples fears and suffering. That is less news than there was on the 15 minute news casts in the 50's.

You might be asking PT Pastor, why do you watch? Well the answer is that I watch less and less. The more half-hours they put on the less I watch. There is one station that has 2 hours in the morning, 1 hour at noon, 1 1/2 in the late afternoon and 1 1/2 at night. Of 6 hours of airtime, beside traffic and weather a bout 3 minutes are news. Truth is that I watch because I want to know what is happening in my metro area and the TV is the way I got that news as a child and I want it back.

I would not mind, so much, if they called this programming an entertainment show with news updates but they call it all news. I wish is that the local public broadcasting channel would do an 1/2 hour news program each night (with the caveat that they could not do their fund raising during that time period but that is another blog altogether.)

Then maybe we could get, to paraphrase Jack Webb from "Dragnet" - Just the news Ma'am.

(You can click on the cartoon for larger image)