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Remember when local news was actually local?
By adamg on Tue, 07/20/2010 - 8:59am
John Carroll reports that three of the stories on WCVB's news at 11 last night actually had absolutely nothing to do with Boston, including one story on a dispute over a billboard "deep in the heart of the Bible Belt."
The "local live coverage you can count on" that 'CVB endlessly flogs is actually "elsewhere canned coverage you could live without."
Ed. note: But give them credit for their extensive coverage of what turned out to be the un-tornado racing down Rte. 2 - to the point where Heather Unruh had to tell "frustrated" Bachelorette fans to stop their whining because tornadoes are a matter of life and death. Well, OK, so she did mistake Harvey Leonard for Pete Bouchard when she asked if size really matters, but really, should reporters be apologizing for reporting breaking news?
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Comments
news actors
That's a self-righteous argument to make, especially when many of the stories WCVB features are people magazine, national enquirer and culture war stories. Bachelorette is virtually indistinguishable from about 20% of what WCVB covers as news.
Bachelorette is a local girl
...so at least that would be considered local coverage.
If last night's weather was a matter of 'life or death,' then why weren't the other major networks covering it? We've all been desensitized due to constant breaking news alerts which turn out to be nothing and/or yesterday's news and the false sense of urgency conveyed with so many weather reports. Publicly chastising viewers was a bit over the top.
Jeopardy was pre-empted for storm coverage
That's on Ch 4. I had to watch Tosh.0. Sure it was funny, but I didn't learn nothin.
Coffee Talk with Linda Richman
I'm getting all verklempt.
Talk amongst yourselves...I'll give you a topic. "Local news" is neither local nor news any more...discuss.
There, I feel better. Who knew?
Seriously?
People watch television for news? Is this one a them retro-nerdy hipster deals, like black socks with shorts, ugly plaid hats and tasteless beer?
Exactly
You pre-game it by not going on the internet since lunchtime. Every time something you didn't already know happens, you have to drink.
better yet,
People watch television? At all?
Damn...
almost shot back a snarky response to this one, but after figuring out that most of my "television" watching comes through Netflix streaming and trips to Fancast, I don't think I've touched the rabbit ears or basic cable in some time.
Yeah....Hulu too
I watch a lot on Hulu also.
But I welcome snarky responses anyway!
I read an article recently that said more and more people are ditching their cable service altogether, preferring a combination of online sources (either free or minimal charge per episode), netflix, and broadcast (rabbit ears). I never thought that cable TV would go in the direction of the landlline phone so quickly.
breaking news/special report
i remember when a "special report" was actually a special report. a pope was dead, reagan had been shot, the space shuttle exploded. now its breaking news or a special report when there is a hail storm or if lindsay lohan is being carted off to jail. after 911 all the networks stayed on with live coverage for days, i think thats where a lot of this comes from. they learned then that these "breaking news/special reports/developing story tags make people take notice. i can barely watch local news any longer. they tease something for 45 minutes and then the story is 30 seconds long and something you read on the internet two days earlier. brutal.
Before that ...
We had HOURS of Victoria Block's zoned out face with the ocean behind her, waiting for JFK Jr.'s plane to be found and pulled up. HOURS of NOTHING.
One reason I no longer watch much TV.
Ditto
Never mind that Breaking news isn't a "major" story - often it's not breaking at all. I hate when the 6:00 news has a 'breaking story' about something that happened at 2 in the afternoon and I have already read about hours beforehand on-line. I thought 'breaking' news was something that was happening right now as we speak.
Yeah, but it's live!!!
"Bill, I'm standing in front of the District Courthouse, where it's quiet now, but just EIGHT HOURS AGO was the scene of opening remarks in the biggest case to hit the area since last week. I'll stay outside this courthouse for the full half-hour in case anything develops"