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What happened to the smart, hard-hitting Channel 5 newscasts of yore?
By adamg on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 10:37am
Dave Alpert fondly remembers the days of Chet Curtis and Natalie Jacobson. Now, he writes, WCVB news sucks as much as any other local newscast, thanks in large part to sucky Ed Harding, but also just in general:
... This morning, I watched a reporter throw her clipboard on the ground and kick snow on it as a way to prove to the rest of us that there is actually snow on the ground. Do you people actually think we are really that retarded? Or is it that you are that retarded? Either way, shame on you Channel 5 Boston. ...
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Comments
It's not the Jacobson/Curtis
It's not the Jacobson/Curtis leaving, but rather WCVB being acquired by Hearst-Argoyle and run like a business, not a news source.
Putting some pretty looking girl out in the snow and having her act like a ditz is done for the same reason that we hear about everything celebrities do:
1)It's readily available (in the case of celebs, there are PR people working to practically shove the material at reporters)
2)It doesn't require verification; when you report heresay or "the weather"- boom, there it is. There are no "sides" or bias to worry about.
3)It's not controversial so they don't have to worry about viewpoint, liability, etc.
4)It doesn't require any journalism skills to produce. Stick pretty girl in snow, turn on camera.
5)It's not "negative"
Ed Harding
This guy sucks.He thinks he is soo smart and charming.Always siting there with that smarmy, smirk waiting for his chance to let everybody know how smart he is.I have reached the point where I tune into NECN for 10 minutes when i get home.Then I put on the FOX25 news at ten, but only for the first 5 minutes.Thats all you get these days, five minutes of real news. The rest is teases for the 4:30 report or the 5pm report or the 5:30 report or ......weather.Who needs to hear the weather every 4 minutes?It never ends.Even when you wait an hour for the teased story its only about 90 seconds long and you already saw most of it in the 15 teases leading up. RD Sahl is my man. The only way I come back is if the females start newscasting in bikinis(excluding Mr Harding).That I would watch.
Ed Hardon
Hear, Hear!
Man, I can't stand to watch Ed Harding!
Smarmy has always been the word that came to mind whenever he'd lift the one eyebrow...man it makes me cringe.
Channel 5 was the only station with a little bit of integrity, now it's just another way to get weather!
Local news is no longer relevant!
Any news, you can get on the internet.
If I want to see a dog waddle across a pond on Vancouver, I'll get it on the internet, not on "local news station" channel 5.
Oh, I meant to say I hate Ed Harding.
(ed, you reading these? I hope!)
Do you people not have lives?
It is pretty amazing how much time people will put into bashing others. What the heck is your problem with Ed Harding? Ever consider the guy might actually know a few things? Maybe he is wasting HIS time being at a fluff station! Ever think of THAT one? Sucks to be you! I sure as Hell wouldn't want YOUR Karma!
They said without even a hint of ironic awareness
At least the first person bashing anyone (whom you're responding to) did it in a timely fashion...as opposed to having nothing better to do than reply to something written over a year ago.
Good one, Mr. and Mrs. Charles, good one.
Boston.com rss feed (to have
Boston.com rss feed (to have some clue as to what's going on in Boston) and Jon Stewart for the important stuff. It's sad really. However, I must say that wbztv.com might soon be replacing boston.com. They have a lot of content that never makes it to air and if you do want to watch the story they are good about posting the news clip. I still can't stand watching wbztv live.
Agree/Disagree
I agree that Chet and Nat were the best. But I disagree that CVB is now as bad as the rest. Fox is on a non-stop quest to see if they can give someone a seizure with their graphics and lighting. 7's format is "All Molesters, All the Time." And on 'BZ, I feel like every time I turn it on I see water-skiing animals.
Local TV News
Local TV news ia just plain bad. Every approaching storm is presented as the next coming of the Apocolypse. Sports have also been presented during the 'news' segment.
I've got to the point of watching NECN and then watch the local forecast for the next days weather.
No channel has a monopoly on shallowness. I realize these stories are dictated by producers/editors off screen. I would like to see a return to some real local news presentations. Not car chases in Florida or LA.
Ed Harding
Perhaps the creepiest news anchor extant. You can actually see Heather and The Black Widow moving away from him during newscasts. Is this the best Ch. 5 can do?
Makes me appreciate the days of Tony Pepper.(not really).
He's awful. I've been
He's awful. I've been watching him slightly more lately cause I got a new HDTV & Channel 5 is the only channel in HD. But it does beg the question, is Ed Harding in HD even creepier than Ed Harding in regular definition?
You should see him in person......
he is 5'3 maybe.