BREAKING NEWS!!!!

[Dawg52]

Don't you get tired of everytime you turn the news on tv or on the internet that there is always a "Breaking News" event.  It doesn't matter what time of the day you turn on CNBC, FOX or CNN, you will find a "Breaking News" banner on the screen. Another one is "Exclusive Report". Crap, I heard that blonde chic on CNBC the other night refer to some story as their "Exclusive Report" when I had already heard the same thing on another channel earlier that night. I guess this just all ties back to the fight for viewer ratings but if anything, it makes me change the channel.

Maybe I'm getting a little testy in my old age. 

 

[REWahoo]

Maybe I'm getting a little testy in my old age.

Dog, you're beginning to sound a little like Andy Rooney. Do you have big, bushy eyebrows?

 

[TromboneAl]

On Conan they had a breaking news interruption about the NBC peacock having contracted the Bird flu.

 

[Dawg52]

Dog, you're beginning to sound a little like Andy Rooney.  Do you have big, bushy eyebrows?

No, but my office looks a little like his.  

 

[acg]

And now the biggest and baddest hurricane ever! We are standing live at ground zero! Stay tuned for more details...

LIVE in your living room! Ugh.

 

[BigMoneyJim]

Either _Culture of Fear_ or one of the _Gift of Fear_ books mentioned the author is surprised the news doesn't say something like "Welcome to the 6 o'clock news. We're surprised you lived through today."

I don't watch TV news anymore. It's entertainment, not news. I scan Reuters headlines via their site or My Yahoo. For international events I'm interested in I'll check websites for BBC, Hindustan Times (India) or other foreign news outlets with English translations. I have Aljazeera bookmarked but haven't made use of it yet. For interesting states-based news I'll go to Google News and look for different stories. I can't think of any one news source I trust.

For realtime events that affect me or those I care about like severe weather or wars I due still get glued to the TV news until they start repeating themselves too much or bring crackpot theorists or inappropriate celebrities/politicians on for interviews...that's how I know they're out of stuff to report.

 

[HFWR]

9/11 - About three days

Hurricane Katrina - About two days

After that, it was all BS, rehash, fluff...

Of course, the tv is not called the "idiot box" for nothing!

As Gallagher says: "They need an intelligence knob on the tv. They have a brightness control, but that doesn't work..."

HFWR corollary: There is already an "intelligence" control...the OFF switch!!