Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Confirmation about those news reports by committee

There's a line in a Paul Simon song, 'I get all the news I need from the weather report." It has reached the point now where that is the only straight news reporting around, except maybe when the idiots stand outside in storms telling everyone else to seek shelter.  At least they don't do it by committee.

News reporting on the 24-hour stations has become increasingly irritating in the past few months.  It's about those committees. The talking head gives the basic story and then a small panel, usually three, of people who know nothing about the subject or have any connection or credibility whatsoever with the given story give their opinions about what is going on.  They often shout and rudely talk over each other in order to say things like "I am not familiar with this particular case but here is what I think in general."  Each one tries to outdo the other in being more profound, or more outrageous or just more clever,  In the end they say nothing and add nothing to the story and their shouted inanities overwhelm the thinking audience.  That's when I change the channel and it happens often.  Some days that's all that's on and it is frustrating not to get any news, just shouting pseudo experts.  I used to laugh at reporters interviewing reporters but the collection of participants in these forums is even worse.  It is the trend apparently.

CASE IN POINT: Wednesday morning 11/20, news head and two others discussing shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  (I will never win this one but I can still refuse to call it black friday.) Does it really take a panel discussion to report that Friday comes after Thursday and it is an over-hyped shopping day?  For the sake of discussion I would submit this intrnet meme: defined as the day when people fight each other to buy unneeded things the day after they gave thanks for what they already have.

I am often alone in my criticisms and I can live with that, but tonight, on this particular subject I received some confirmation.  I am not the only one.  When I can, I usually watch a rerun of  the previous night's The Daily Show at 6:30 p.m. during dinner.  It's better than answering telemarketers' calls. So, tonight they did it: Jon Stewart and a panel of his cronies shouting each other down with one outrageous comment after another about the subject or off the subject or about anything that came to mind.  It was hilarious, it pilloried those CNN and HLN and MSNBC committees at their best. I laughed.  No wonder young people say they get their news from Stewart and Stephen Colbert.  Some days their hilarity is the only sanity in the news business and I have to admit sorting through their humor I often learn things about a subject I hadn't heard or read about in the supposed responsible news media.

Overall it is a shame to watch news reporting degenerate into showmanship with no substance. It makes me want to find some recordings of Walter Cronkite and send them to the networks in hopes somebody will realize how far they have removed themselves from real news.
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