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What Words Or Phrases Would You Ban From Newscasts?
- Thread starter Joey1986
- Start date
KeithE4 said:
I haven't exactly been keeping a log on this, but I've heard it numerous times on local L.A. TV newscasts. Both KCAL-9 and KABC-7 seem to come to mind immediately.
It's also happened on MSNBC and CNN, and not necessarily on international stories. Even if they were, if they're reporting directly back to a US audience, shouldn't they make the adjustment?
V
Vandelay
Guest
The words, "Ultra", "Mega", "Super", "Extreme", "Ultimate", "Über", "[number]-thousand", etc. when used in conjunction with the word "Doppler" and/or "Radar".
What about inane slogans such as:
"XX Stands For Local News" -- when I first heard this, I thought that their anchor's stood up during the newscast!
"YYY's News Leader" -- inevitably the 4th or 5th rated station calls themselves the "news leader"
"Developing Story" -- what does this really mean? They haven't found out all the facts yet??
"New at 10pm" -- so the rest of your news is old, stale news from 12 hours ago?
"4 Warn Storm Team 4x4 Doppler Chief Meteorologist YYY" -- OMG, you just took up half the time for the weather
Here's one only for Phoenix: When it rained very heavily (first heavy rain of the YEAR) last week, one chief met actually put up a chart with expected rain fall amount. The Phoenix metro area should get 1.5-2 inches of rain. But note that, just to the East of Phoenix metro, they could get 2.5+ inches of rain. If that area of heavy rain shifts just 50 miles west, we could be in for a deluge. So, we will have to watch this very carefully for the next 24 hours as those weather patterns could easily shift. Sarah will be in in the morning watching to very latest developments...
I wanted to say to the man. It's a freaking rainstorm, not a freaking snowstorm, enough already!
"XX Stands For Local News" -- when I first heard this, I thought that their anchor's stood up during the newscast!
"YYY's News Leader" -- inevitably the 4th or 5th rated station calls themselves the "news leader"
"Developing Story" -- what does this really mean? They haven't found out all the facts yet??
"New at 10pm" -- so the rest of your news is old, stale news from 12 hours ago?
"4 Warn Storm Team 4x4 Doppler Chief Meteorologist YYY" -- OMG, you just took up half the time for the weather
Here's one only for Phoenix: When it rained very heavily (first heavy rain of the YEAR) last week, one chief met actually put up a chart with expected rain fall amount. The Phoenix metro area should get 1.5-2 inches of rain. But note that, just to the East of Phoenix metro, they could get 2.5+ inches of rain. If that area of heavy rain shifts just 50 miles west, we could be in for a deluge. So, we will have to watch this very carefully for the next 24 hours as those weather patterns could easily shift. Sarah will be in in the morning watching to very latest developments...
I wanted to say to the man. It's a freaking rainstorm, not a freaking snowstorm, enough already!
For a while, our news director used "kudos" and "groaner" jars. Each jar contained marbles. If he liked something in the newscast, he would move a marble to the kudos jar. If we used a "groaner" (as defined by a specific list -- think "escaped on foot" or similar phrases), he moved a marble back to the groaner jar.
N
Nertz!
Guest
"Action News"
"via satellite"
"Action Cam"
"Big Story"
"Jim Gardner" (not his real name)
"Dave Roberts" (not his real name)
"Accu-Weather"
"HD"
"via satellite"
"Action Cam"
"Big Story"
"Jim Gardner" (not his real name)
"Dave Roberts" (not his real name)
"Accu-Weather"
"HD"
"The situation could have been much worse."
How timely that the alternative weekly paper here in Madison, Isthmus, had a critique of local TV news a few weeks ago, including stupid names and slogans. Here's that article, in fact. I'll mention a couple from the story, along with one or to I myself have noticed:
* "CrimeTracker Alert," which is nothing more than the nightly police blotter, only with a name designed to scare the bejeezus out of the viewer.
* "World Headlines," which is nothing more than dramatic footage (or shots of cute puppies) from Britain or Austrailia.
* "National Headlines" (same as above, only substitute New York and California for Britain and Austrailia).
* "Working for You." Yeah, things would be soooo different if you really were working for me.
* "As you first saw on [insert station website here]...." This assumes that (1) the viewer bothered to check your website and (2) you had the story on your website first (when it's likely that someone else's website had it first and said viewer saw it there).
* "New Since 6." Yeah, it's nothing more than a story filmed much earlier in the day (or even the week) that's so juicy, you wanted to save it for 10. The daytime images give it away.
* When after some guy does something dastardly, the station interviews those from the town he grew up in, and the anchor/reporter will say, "the people who live there remember him as a young man." Well OF COURSE! It's because he was a young man then! (I really did see an anchor say that once and I had to chuckle in disbelief.)
* Special names for the weather staff's cubbyhole full of monitors and computers. Case in point: WLUK in Green Bay billed theirs as "WeatherLab HD" a few years ago. Such a name would suggest that they run Mr Wizard-type experiments there (when such experiments are not in the budget).
* And speaking of HD, yes, the initials "HD" in your news. We all know it's the quality of your news product that matters, not how sharp the pictures look. It's even more pointless if your news really isn't in HD (just as in the WLUK example above, when HD was in its infancy and the news set didn't even have any HD monitors yet, let alone equipment).
* "CrimeTracker Alert," which is nothing more than the nightly police blotter, only with a name designed to scare the bejeezus out of the viewer.
* "World Headlines," which is nothing more than dramatic footage (or shots of cute puppies) from Britain or Austrailia.
* "National Headlines" (same as above, only substitute New York and California for Britain and Austrailia).
* "Working for You." Yeah, things would be soooo different if you really were working for me.
* "As you first saw on [insert station website here]...." This assumes that (1) the viewer bothered to check your website and (2) you had the story on your website first (when it's likely that someone else's website had it first and said viewer saw it there).
* "New Since 6." Yeah, it's nothing more than a story filmed much earlier in the day (or even the week) that's so juicy, you wanted to save it for 10. The daytime images give it away.
* When after some guy does something dastardly, the station interviews those from the town he grew up in, and the anchor/reporter will say, "the people who live there remember him as a young man." Well OF COURSE! It's because he was a young man then! (I really did see an anchor say that once and I had to chuckle in disbelief.)
* Special names for the weather staff's cubbyhole full of monitors and computers. Case in point: WLUK in Green Bay billed theirs as "WeatherLab HD" a few years ago. Such a name would suggest that they run Mr Wizard-type experiments there (when such experiments are not in the budget).
* And speaking of HD, yes, the initials "HD" in your news. We all know it's the quality of your news product that matters, not how sharp the pictures look. It's even more pointless if your news really isn't in HD (just as in the WLUK example above, when HD was in its infancy and the news set didn't even have any HD monitors yet, let alone equipment).
Not really a word or phrase but...
I would remove all types of tickers at the bottom of the screen...
BECAUSE WHEN THERE IS SOMETHING INTERESTING THAT COMES UP ON THE TICKER, YOU START TO READ IT... BUT THE STATION CUTS TO A COMMERCIAL BREAK AND TAKES THE TICKER OFF THE SCREEN..... NOT LETTING YOU FINISH READING THE REST OF THE STORY!!!!
I would remove all types of tickers at the bottom of the screen...
BECAUSE WHEN THERE IS SOMETHING INTERESTING THAT COMES UP ON THE TICKER, YOU START TO READ IT... BUT THE STATION CUTS TO A COMMERCIAL BREAK AND TAKES THE TICKER OFF THE SCREEN..... NOT LETTING YOU FINISH READING THE REST OF THE STORY!!!!
Nobody has yet mentioned my main pet peeve phrase....
INNOCENT VICTIM
(versus a "guilty victim")
INNOCENT VICTIM
(versus a "guilty victim")
sack said:
Thank you, Sack!
Mia Lee of KCAL-9 in Los Angeles is absolutely, positively THE WORST offender at giggling during a newscast. She's even giggled during semi-serious stories. Any anchor that giggles needs to be fired IMMEDIATELY! It's so damn unprofessional.
Another thing that makes her worthy of a pink slip is saying following one of KCAL news' way too many puff pieces - "Oh, that's so cute!"
Grrrrrrrrr! :-[
KABB-FOX29 in San Antonio is a big offender in everything about its newscasts especially their morning news show. If they are not flaunting American Idol or something non-essential, they have all the gigglers (even the weatherman giggles). Not only that, they have the morning newscast now in split screen with part of the screen showing local weather, then the other part of the screen having traffic updates, news updates, etc. Also, they can't go to the weather at all, always teasing you at 5 minute intervals telling you "Weather in a moment."
Another slogan is their night time news at 9:00 PM. "At 9:00 it's news, at 10:00 it's history." Oh no it is not.
Another slogan is their night time news at 9:00 PM. "At 9:00 it's news, at 10:00 it's history." Oh no it is not.
J
jimmyherd
Guest
The weather forecast now has to be The Daypart forecast broken down for you by the minute
J
Julius Leonard Marx
Guest
Absolutely
Right you are, _______.
These words are used by the human mic-stand out with the news van after the anchor has summarized the story before going to the live shot, making what ever comes next redundant.
The live shot comes (especially at 11pm) from a location where nothing is happening, although something happened there eight hours (or may happen there tomorrow).
Following the live-shot, the teleprompter reader in the studio will ask one or two inane follow up questions suggesting the "reporter" left out something important and the teleprompter reader is really not just a teleprompter reader.
Right you are, _______.
These words are used by the human mic-stand out with the news van after the anchor has summarized the story before going to the live shot, making what ever comes next redundant.
The live shot comes (especially at 11pm) from a location where nothing is happening, although something happened there eight hours (or may happen there tomorrow).
Following the live-shot, the teleprompter reader in the studio will ask one or two inane follow up questions suggesting the "reporter" left out something important and the teleprompter reader is really not just a teleprompter reader.
O
OhReally?
Guest
Oh I soooo agree with you.KentBrockman said:
Alot of other great ones mentioned. Great thread. Laughed heartily at many of the responses.
Completely superfluous phrases used when giving weather forecasts...ie: "this is a significant snow EVENT with considerable snowfall ACTIVITY.
Event? Activity? Sounds more like a party than a weather forecast. Leave the words event and activity out of the forecasts and just gimmie the weather without editorializing.
Event? Activity? Sounds more like a party than a weather forecast. Leave the words event and activity out of the forecasts and just gimmie the weather without editorializing.
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