Sometimes news coverage just makes me want to scream. I don't mind a little fluff or human interest stuff, but the chosen lead stories sometimes leave me really angry. Thankfully here in Canada we have the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). Far from perfect, at least CBC News usually leads off with something that might matter to thinking people.
Global News Toronto, on the other hand, often makes rather different calls. This was their lead story on the late news last night.
Here are the top stories, in order:
1) School Piercing Ban (long)
2) Man Dead In House Fire (very short)
3) Ottawa Relaxing Airport Security (Somewhat Longish)
4) Cairo / Egypt / Mubarak / Journalist Suppression (really long)
Perhaps they have a policy of starting with Local news, then National, then International. That's cool. But how and why does a girl getting kicked out of class for a dress code violation trump a fatal house fire, or anything else? How is that News? I mean, Are You #%^&1n' Kiddin' Me? Next I guess they will do a four part series on what some teenagers are hiding in their lockers. For the record, the four parts should cover booze, smokes, drugs and lurid bikini photos. Shocking. It's just shocking.
I guess I shouldn't expect much from a News Provider that puts issues up on Twitter and then reports on air what all the insightful people out on the Internets have to say about it. I guess it is just a natural extension of the "man on the street" interview, but those bug me too. Why the hell would I want the opinion of some joker who gets stopped on the street over an expert who might enlighten me in some way? If I wanted to hear people's personal and random and oh so human opinions, I would start a stupid blog or something or at least read other people's stupid blogs. I mean, sheesh!
I guess I shouldn't expect much from a News Provider that puts issues up on Twitter and then reports on air what all the insightful people out on the Internets have to say about it. I guess it is just a natural extension of the "man on the street" interview, but those bug me too. Why the hell would I want the opinion of some joker who gets stopped on the street over an expert who might enlighten me in some way? If I wanted to hear people's personal and random and oh so human opinions, I would start a stupid blog or something or at least read other people's stupid blogs. I mean, sheesh!
Yer pal,
R A N T W I C K 
4 comments:
First take deep breaths then go get the wire cutters. Unplug the news machine then cut the cord in three pieces.
Of course you could just turn it off but that is not near as dramatic.
Turning it off is difficult but after the withdrawal period (time varies for this for me it was several weeks) you will wonder why you did not do it years ago.
Thank you for making me feel a little better about our Texas local news. Not that I feel GOOD about it, but at least I know when to get the weather report before I leave for work.
As for the Oldfool solution, it makes it a lot more difficult to repurpose the cord, though drama has value as well...
That's one of the reasons I don't miss having cable. I dropped it a few years back..save money too because of it.moy
Amen. And what about world news?.. I'm always amazed when I go to Europe about how much they know about our news, and how little we know about theirs. It's not nearly as bad as in the United States of blessed America, but we're not far off. International news should not be limited to terrorism and the middle east.
I also do love when they find some hobo on the street who can hardly put a sentence together, or says something wise like "I could hardly believe it!", and we're supposed to learn something from that. Standards for public media just keeps rising, what can I say..
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