Local TV News is Couch Potato Eye Candy 
~ by James Banzer

   This recollection comes from about 1953, when
television was still in its infancy. The station I was
watching did its newscasts from a cramped transmitter
building. The studio building had not yet been
constructed.

   On several nights in succession, the guy reading the
news was pestered by a fly. He would raise his hand to
shoo the fly away, and would talk about it on the air
between news stories.

   One night when a fly came back to bother him, he had
hung a flyswatter up on a nail on the front side of
the desk. He explained that a viewer had sent it to
him. He got up in the middle of the newscast and
swatted the fly.

   If you're a true connoisseur of news - or perhaps the
better term would be news junkie - you were probably
turned off of local television news a long time ago.
It's enough to make you want to just turn off the boob
tube and opt instead for something a little deeper,
like reading a book.

   Television has come a long way since 1953. The
technology is better. The anchors are slicker and more
refined. But, the material they present is still
pablum that is sure to be easily digestible by a
14-year-old. It's what's known as appealing to the
lowest common denominator. Insiders in the industry
know that term all too well.

   If one of your state's top basketball or football
teams is having a game, the nightly local news is apt
to consume a good ten minutes of the first part of the
broadcast. If there's a little bit of snow falling,
the same holds true. It doesn't happen in the middle
of the newscast. It leads. 

   When there's a bit of snow, it's predictable that
there will be a reporter out on a street corner
somewhere with one camera pointed at him. The shot
pans over to the cars driving through the snow, then
back to the reporter, who tells us this stuff is
slushy or otherwise. The camera points down to the
ground and the reporter kicks the snow, or digs the
toe of his shoe into it to show us how deep it is. The
reporter will manage to do a silly slide if there's a
surface layer of ice. It doesn't take a whole lot of
television viewing to memorize that script.

   Likewise, a murder, car crash, or other mayhem is
going to be a lead. "If it bleeds, it leads." These
things probably have a place in the broadcast in
modified and non-sensationalized form, but not always
at the top. These days, this kind of thing is commonly
called the big story, complete with plenty of bells
and whistles. It could be covered in a minute or so,
but it is dragged out.

   Because of the very nature of television, which has
built-in time restraints, only so much can be talked
about in a half-hour block. Take away the ten minutes
for the big game sports story which examines
everything from which player has been sidelined, to
how the fans have painted their faces and bare chests
with the school colors as they whoop and holler at one
of the local watering holes, and there's not a whole
lot of time left for real news.

   Then, eliminate the three to five minutes that's set
aside for the regular weather portion of the
broadcast, as well as the five minutes or more for the
sports report. Throw the commercials into the mix, and
not much time is left.

   What local television news is missing is the important
stuff. The relevant events of the day have gone to the
trash heap, unless of course there is some accompanying 
dramatic video.

   Here and there, there are a few television stations
that make an attempt at more serious local news
presentations. They are hard to find though.

   Eye candy works, or the local television stations
wouldn't be doing it. Television is a passive medium.
Millions sit glued to the boob tube munching their
chips and drinking their beer. They don't really care
to think, so they are part of that lowest common
denominator target audience.

   The rest of us are just going to have to deal with it.
Television has its place. To me, more often than not,
that place is just as another piece of electronic
equipment that rarely gets turned on.

020204

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James Banzer has enjoyed a long career in broadcast
news and is now writing on his observations about the
world around us. He is currently residing in
Louisville, Kentucky. You may send an e-mail to him at
jamesbanzer@yahoo.com .