Local News: Scare Tactics

Awhile back I talked about cable news (specifically CNN) and its decline in its quantity and quality of news. Well now, it's local news's turn!

For the most part, the local late night news has had a pretty consistent format; some of the big local stories, a few national news stories, weather, sports, and maybe a filler story or two. When the Fox network came along, with the WB network, this all changed.

You see, instead of putting the news in at the "normal" time, these networks started the news 1 hour earlier...and, they extended the format to one hour long. Now, for the traditional networks, the local news was a bit of a stretch to make a 30 or 35 minute show. ("uhhh..lets take another look at the weather!") So to make an hour long news program, there's bound to be some filler. I, for one, am getting a little annoyed with these stories. Not because I have to watch them, but because I have to hear about them. Whenever the networks do their little promos for whatever is on that night (usually on the radio), generally they'll add in what the "big story" is going to be on the evening news.

You've probably all heard these promos. It's because they all sound the same. The overly dramatic music starts, then you hear, "Tonight...on Fox News at 9.." and then the story.

I'm pretty set in my ways. I like some type of food/drink/clothes/store, etc., I tend to stick with it and don't like changing just because someone says so. Well, these news programs are trying to say so. Things like "vitamins aren't as healthy as once believed," or "soda cans..you thought they were safe, but tonight, you'll find out how deadly they are!" You know what, I don't want to hear your little expose on what the latest thing is to cause cancer, and what's not as healthy as we thought, or the hidden little secrets on the products we like. And that's because I don't adjust to fads. I didn't join the low-carb fad, I'm not going to do the latest new exercise program. People in their 80s and 90s have lived long lives eating whatever they want and exercisingg when they feel like it. So why the hell am I supposed to believe we're living in an unhealthier time?

And if their little stories aren't on what the latest thing is that's going to kill us all, it's a reporter harassing some business or individual. This past Halloween a local news program advertised a story about how trick-or-treating was much more dangerous this year because local kids were going to houses of registered sex offenders. Then they showed the reporter going to the houses of these people who were "endangering your children." For one, these people are registered offenders. They know what a horrible thing they did, and they're going to have to live with it the rest of their lives. So why do you have to bust their door open and shove a camera in their face just so you can show what a great thing you're doing for the community? And two, why do you have to scare the heck out of parents, making them think next year they're going to have to escort their kids or give them a can of mace so they can spray it in the faces of treat givers who may seem a little suspicious? What purpose does it serve?

So yeah, I think local news programs, at least the longer ones, are trash and exploitation. You know what, just do the local news, weather, and sports, do your silly little banter, then move on to the sitcoms or talk shows. I don't want myself or anyone else to be subjected to these scare tactics.