Short comings of commercial television news

So, as many of you probably already know, I'm a loyal PBS viewer. Always have been, always will be. My favorite program, though, is the NewsHour with Jim Leher. I started watching the NewsHour about a year ago; and today, I was reminded why. The show ran a few minutes short, so I switched over to my local NBC affiliate since that's where Wheel of Fortune/Jeopardy come on (I know, I know...I'm a dork).

Today, I was reminded why I stopped watching the evening news on NBC and on commercial television all together.

It seems like there's a lot of fluff, and not a lot of news. I mean, tonight, they finished the show with a piece that went on and on about the Obamas night at the balls and all that. It was a fluff piece and it was a waste of good time and work. I don't know if anyone feels the same way I do on this, but the evening news and especially the 24-hour news station seem to lack a lot of substance. They may have the nicer graphics and bigger budget; but it seems to be at the cost of substantial reporting.

Are you happy with your current living situation, dc? If not, I could adopt you. You're already the son I never had.

(Please note, you are not special, I made the same offer to PokerPacker a few years ago, and he rejected it too.)

Are you happy with your current living situation, dc? If not, I could adopt you. You're already the son I never had.

(Please note, you are not special, I made the same offer to PokerPacker a few years ago, and he rejected it too.)

Sorry, Pops...can't do it.

But, you can still let me borrow the car on Friday night.

Sorry, Pops...can't do it.

But, you can still let me borrow the car on Friday night.

Wha...the car? Ah, on second thought, nevermind.

As to your point (finally) I agree with you 100%. Now I'm not going to lie, I do watch FOX, but largely for entertainment value. Occassionally I'll watch CNN, and generally, if I'm home, I will watch the nightly news. (I think part of that just comes from being in the 'middle' generation between steadfast evening network news viewers and you non-stop interwebbing youngsters.)

The bottom line though, as you well know, is that in this day and age especially, you MUST do two things.

1) Get your news from multiple sources. And use a combination of TYPES of sources. (TV, internet, radio, newspaper, etc.)

and

2) VERIFY your sources. Obviously, you can't verify the sources in the stories you're reading. But do all that you can to make sure the source you GET the story from is legit.

I think it's hysterical when people post garbage from obviously biased sites (you can usually tell by the ads on them) and cite it as gospel truth. There are few ways to get me to lose respect for your argument more quickly.

Mhmm. I do get my news from two different sources, PBS and the Washington Post; and I frequent fact sights when I hear something that doesn't sound quite square.

I used to watch the Nightly News when Brokaw was at the helm, but when he retired, the overall quality of the broadcasts seemed to go down hill.

Mhmm. I do get my news from two different sources, PBS and the Washington Post; and I frequent fact sights when I hear something that doesn't sound quite square.

Nothing wrong with doing your own fact checking, and I admire your effort to do so.

However, I'd submit for the record that two regular news sources these days may not be enough. (Though I DO think ES is a VASTLY under-rated resource for news.)

I like NPR and PBS. I think for the most part they do a pretty damned good job of calling things on the up-and-up and with limited bias. The Post? Meh. I think you need the Times to balance them, but that's just my opinion.

As far as Lehrer goes though, I think he's beyond reproach.

I used to watch the Nightly News when Brokaw was at the helm, but when he retired, the overall quality of the broadcasts seemed to go down hill.

I liked Brokaw a lot too, and I not only think NBC's reporting got worse, but also went further left when Brian Williams took over. Still, I like their presentation, and the types of stories they cover. I just find that I usually have to do some digging on my own afterwards too.

Wait until you hear the conspiracy concerning the owners of network news. That's fun.

But what you are missing are the motives behind a CNN show versus a PBS show. And that's ratings, which contributes to higher marketing demand, which leads to higher advertising prices, which adds to the all mighty bottom line. Just look around you. Which shows are the most popular? Reality TV shows. Are there a lot of differences between network news and reality TV? I mean, both are bull****.

Wait until you hear the conspiracy concerning the owners of network news. That's fun.

But what you are missing are the motives behind a CNN show versus a PBS show. And that's ratings, which contributes to higher marketing demand, which leads to higher advertising prices, which adds to the all mighty bottom line. Just look around you. Which shows are the most popular? Reality TV shows. Are there a lot of differences between network news and reality TV? I mean, both are bull****.

I realized that a little while ago. All they are out to do is make something out of nothing, stir the pot, and get those rating. It truly is disgusting.