“Ask any 25 to 35 year old if they watch local TV news on a regular basis?” That same friend also told me that he’s never watched local news, except with me. He doesn’t even browse the local paper online. Yet he reads the online version of the daily newspaper of the city he grew up in.

Paula Zahn (she’s supposed to be the bastion of
credible news reporters right…)
At the end of her program tonight she interviews a
Jewish representative of some organization about
the Mel Gibson situation who says to Paula…”so what ! The guy was drunk. He’s not a politician, he’s not a statesmen, he’s not making a public statement saying this is what he believes. We don’t care about it. Let’s leave the guy alone.” or words to that effect.
But Paula argues with the guy,
saying but he’s a Celeb and Celebs carry weight
and let me read you this quote, etc. etc.
I mean, Geez Louise.
Why did she interview the guy? Was it to get his
perspective as a Jewish person? Apparently not.
She just wanted to try to convince him he really
should think this was a big deal. She wanted to argue.

My prediction is people will eventually get tired of all the flash and arguing and lack of substance offered
by the majority of today’s TV news. They will realize
it’s all a waste of their time. Local news is worse by far at not providing much that local residents can use to understand their community and their leaders and how to improve their town and hold their elected
officials accountable to the people. This, after all,
is why we have freedom of the press in this country in the first place.

People will say, if this is what TV news has to offer, I’ll get my news some other way. I think this change has already started. Ask any 25 to 35 year old if they watch local TV news on a regular basis? See if even 10% of them answer yes. Even me, who worked in TV news
since the early 70s has had it. I can’t watch local news.
Nobody stands up for anything anymore.
All the crap is presented like it’s ok.
There is no followup when some local government
official says something that is false or misleading.
No one rebuts. The reason…..no time to do it.
Amazingly, in a 60 minute newscast,
there are only 25 minutes of news. The rest is
commercials and bumps and promos.
What a joke.

Some smart person will start up a news organization
that provides usable, credible news coverage and
slowly it will get readers and viewers. This is no
different than any other commodity that people consume.
First, someone makes something good.
Then everyone copies it very badly.
Then nobody likes the product anymore.
Then while no one is paying attention,
someone comes along and makes it better again.

It will happen. It might take a while though.
Let’s see what happens.
Dan