The Irrevelance of National News

[landtuna]

Taking some comments on another related post a bit further...

Tonight I watched the Nightly News on NBC. Here is what they consider national news:

Lead-off story was 7-8 minutes of the upcoming "fiscal cliff" and the results of the Black Friday shopping volumes. The fiscal cliff story has been aired on various media over 30 times in the past two weeks. Nothing new was reported.

Something about Egypt's Morsi saying something ....blah, blah, blah.

A piece on the training of UPS drivers including how to walk on ice.

A peek into the boxathon going on now at Amazon.com.

A piece on how Prince Charles is anxiously awaiting his turn to be king. How this affects any citizen of the USA is beyond me.

A remark that Hurricane Sandy caused more damage in New York alone than the total Katrina storm. Yea Noo Yawk!

And perhaps the only story of true national interest not before reported.....Powerball has hit a new high.

 

[arnoldevns]

The "Fiscal Cliff" is an important story.. but it does seem to me that the broadcast networks seem to be rehashing material from the weekend sunday morning talk shows more than finding something new to say about it today.

 

[landtuna]

The "Fiscal Cliff" is an important story.. but it does seem to me that the broadcast networks seem to be rehashing material from the weekend sunday morning talk shows more than finding something new to say about it today.

Exactly my point!

 

[PTBoardOp94]

The fiscal cliff will be news every day until Congress passes a bill - or fails to pass a bill. The media know that when the economy recesses, advertising budgets are among the first things cut, and they don't want that.

Mohamed Morsi's decree over the weekend is interesting to Amnesty International types because they want a fair democracy in Egypt, and to Zionists (if that's a term still used in the 21st century) because Egypt's foreign policy will heavily influence whether Israel and Palestine launch an all-out war. And, (sarcasm mode on), again, the "Jewish owned media" don't want another war over Palestine. (sarcasm mode off)

None of this is specifically relevant to you and me, but it is relevant to enough people to merit coverage.

The training at UPS on the other hand was slow news day filler.

 

[landtuna]

The fiscal cliff will be news every day until Congress passes a bill - or fails to pass a bill. The media know that when the economy recesses, advertising budgets are among the first things cut, and they don't want that.

Repeating the same old blah, blah, blah about the fiscal cliff is not news. It has been reported many times almost verbatim. What would be news would be any movement by our fearless leaders.

Mohamed Morsi's decree over the weekend is interesting to Amnesty International types because they want a fair democracy in Egypt, and to Zionists (if that's a term still used in the 21st century) because Egypt's foreign policy will heavily influence whether Israel and Palestine launch an all-out war. And, (sarcasm mode on), again, the "Jewish owned media" don't want another war over Palestine. (sarcasm mode off)

None of this is specifically relevant to you and me, but it is relevant to enough people to merit coverage.

Again, I would agree with you if the story had been reported in any depth. Unfortunately, it wasn't so we get basically a repetition of day old blather.

The training at UPS on the other hand was slow news day filler.

I'm absolutely positive I could scan the Internet and come up with stories that are (a) real news, (b) somewhat interesting to the majority of viewers and (c) not a waste of my time. I wonder why the drones at NBC cannot seem to do it? With everything happening in the world today there shouldn't be any requirement for "filler".

 

[Joe_Capitano]

The training at UPS on the other hand was slow news day filler.

Very true, though the economy does rely somewhat on UPS, FedEx, the Postal Service, etc. this time of year.

 

[1069_KIFR]

Good thing you didn't watch ABC World News with Diane Sawyer!

 

[sandiegoinexile]

The networks have 21 minutes to cover topics that appeal to the broadest possible number of viewers. I'm sure we could all come up with 15 topics that we would like to see brought to everyone else's attention, but odds are, those 15 would vary wildly and at least half of them would get a "meh" reaction from any other viewer.

25M viewers still tune into the three network newscasts. That's 10X what highly-rated Fox News sees on a routine day.

 

[fairchild]

25M viewers still tune into the three network newscasts.

And the networks know exactly what demographics they can hit with the national news, too. They don't step outside those lines at all.

 

[Markxxx]

I find all news, local and national too similar. The only thing that really switches is the order.

And now no news does any real investigative or hard hitting stories, because they know if they do, the person or company will cut them off cold for future access.

I'll give you a great example, what was the biggest war since WWII? It was the Second Congolese War. Called the World War of Africa. More death and destruction than any war since WWII. How many have heard of it?

Very few, no one covered it. No one really cared. But we're all fortunate that we no longer have to rely on other to give us information. We can seek it out, as I'm sure you're all rushing off to the Wikipedia to read about the Second Congo War

 

[LKellerIII]

I find all news, local and national too similar. The only thing that really switches is the order.

And now no news does any real investigative or hard hitting stories, because they know if they do, the person or company will cut them off cold for future access.

I'll give you a great example, what was the biggest war since WWII? It was the Second Congolese War. Called the World War of Africa. More death and destruction than any war since WWII. How many have heard of it?

Very few, no one covered it. No one really cared. But we're all fortunate that we no longer have to rely on other to give us information. We can seek it out, as I'm sure you're all rushing off to the Wikipedia to read about the Second Congo War

Exactly. The real scandal to me is the lack of coverage of many international events - by either the network evening news programs, or by cable news channels. Other than BBC, the best source is CNN International, or what is known in the rest of the world as just CNN. Unfortunately, we no longer get CNN-I here - last time I saw it was on my 2010 vacation to Cabo San Lucas, in Mexico. CNN in the US is the gimmicky, often fluffy and slogan laden "Up Front," "Keeping Em Honest," and all that. Let's not even talk about Fox News.

Apparently, the people in charge believe Americans aren't interested in straight, non-nonsense news coverage.

 

[KeithE4]

Apparently, the people in charge believe Americans aren't interested in straight, non-nonsense news coverage.

Most Americans haven't been interested in straight, no-nonsense news coverage since the days of Huntley/Brinkley and Uncle Walter. But there are plenty of sources for news for those of us that do prefer real news. But they're all on the interwebs, not on television.

I really don't think that anyone who gets their news strictly from TV should be allowed to call themselves "fully informed." News is available, comprehensive, and free (other than the cost of a PC and ISP, of course) for anyone willing to seek it.

 

[landtuna]

Very few, no one covered it. No one really cared. But we're all fortunate that we no longer have to rely on other to give us information. We can seek it out, as I'm sure you're all rushing off to the Wikipedia to read about the Second Congo War

I'm not going to defend the news media for failing to cover that war (although it actually did although not consistently and not by the same name) because there are a few good reasons why:

Africa, in general, means nothing to the citizens of the USA. Events there such as political or cultural strife, natural disasters, infectious diseases, wars and economic events tend to be repetitious and never-ending. A continent of countries constantly changing names and ruled by various dictators whose primary purpose seems to be ethnic cleansing. Unlike Europe or even Asia the vast majority of Americans are too far removed from Africa as an ancestral home and consider it just a giant wildlife reserve with non-stop cultural conflicts.

It is much the same with the Middle East of which I have been reading the same repetitious BS since I was 10 years old. The only difference is the USA's vested interest in the existence of Israel and the world's supply of oil.

Were I a news producer for a national media outlet and had to choose between these two regions for a story it would be the Middle East without question but I would even take a domestic story before one on Africa.

 

[mjlarochelle]

A piece on how Prince Charles is anxiously awaiting his turn to be king. How this affects any citizen of the USA is beyond me.

What I'm interpreting is that if the story doesn't take place in the United States, it shouldn't be on the news?

I'd rather see that than the latest adventures of Honey Boo-Boo.

 

[landtuna]

A piece on how Prince Charles is anxiously awaiting his turn to be king. How this affects any citizen of the USA is beyond me.

What I'm interpreting is that if the story doesn't take place in the United States, it shouldn't be on the news?

Your interpretation is dead wrong.

 

[visaman]

The only difference is the USA's vested interest in the existence of Israel and the world's supply of oil.

Not too mention the 2nd coming of Jesus, which could be any day now.

 

[visaman]

A piece on how Prince Charles is anxiously awaiting his turn to be king. How this affects any citizen of the USA is beyond me.

Well, Charles will be the King of Canada one day, and just might declare war against the USA. You never know.

 

[ansky212]

What I find really annoying is when the local news spends half the newscast talking about national news instead of local stories that affect my local area. As a viewer in the NY area I would rather hear about the big fire down the street than a wildfire in CA.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Something about Egypt's Morsi saying something ....blah, blah, blah.

Morsi is a hard-core Islamist who has basically just seized dictatorial powers for himself.
If America is not paying attention to him we should be, because what happens next over there
stands to impact us greatly.

 

[landtuna]

Something about Egypt's Morsi saying something ....blah, blah, blah.

Morsi is a hard-core Islamist who has basically just seized dictatorial powers for himself.
If America is not paying attention to him we should be, because what happens next over there
stands to impact us greatly.

Yes, the USA gubmint should, and is, paying attention. But what Morsi was saying was of no consequence. He was just giving a repetition of his talking points just as our politicians do. It was not news.