Why I don't watch TV news

[StefanX]

Look at this CNN transcript. Try to read through it and see if it has an actual point:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0508/21/rs.01.html

Remember, you probably read faster than the people on that show talk. So imagine having to sit through that meandering stream of blathering and superficiality (punctuated, of course, by a few cogent points from Arianna towards the end). In that same amount of time, you could probably have read (and responded to) two or three clear and concise blog entries.

I ran across that transcript because Atrios linked to Crooks and Liars, which linked to the CNN transcript. So I tried to read it.

It was a shock. After reading books and reading and writing on the web for so many yeras, I was suddenly confronted by a disjointed series of short statements strung together in an incoherent meaningless mess.

This is why I don't watch TV news. It's just a bunch of choppy disconnected snippets and opposing viewpoints and interruptions which don't add up into an actual thought or concept or statement. I would imagine that a steady diet of TV news would turn your brain to mush.

Maybe TV news works for some people, but I can't make heads or tails of it. In the immortal words of Gertrude Stein, "There is no there there."

[Jim Sagle]

1. It's by design.

Every word you said about TV news is true. But for those who fling it on the screen, it's all good. Turning our brains to mush is what it's all about.

And certainly there's no there there. Any time any there gets through, someone gets fired to make sure it doesn't recur.

[Zinfandel]

2. I'm with you...I haven't watch television 'news' since a week before the

illegal invasion of Iraq.

[skids]

3. Why I watch TV news...

...because I want to know what the sheeple are being told.

It makes them much more predictable.

[Cleita]

4. You will still know because everyone tells you.

It's really a waste of time you can better spend looking up the real news on the internet.

[skids]

5. Yes, but...

I know what they are going to say before they open their mouth. And I'm ready for it.

[baby_bear]

6. I rarely watch local TV news

20 year ago, the local news channels in Seattle had some darn good investigative reporting of local/regional/state issues as well as decent reporting of national and international news. Now it pretty much has come down to this:
1) weather
2) car wrecks, people stabbing or shooting each other, meth labs, police car chases and the like, along with kidnapping stories of pretty blondes around the country, and the trials of serial killers anywhere;
3) local sports, a little bit (cursory);
4) a short pick-up on car bombings in Iraq;

and for "hard news", reporting (with attribution) what the two local newspaper have to say about important local issues. They can't seem to maintain the wherewithall to do it themselves. Do I really want to listen to a station basically and literally saying, "The Seattle P-I reported today that the Port of Seattle is seeking a 20 percent increase in property taxes to support such-and-such." And on and on. It's so pathetic that I refuse to watch any more. I don't think they do any investigative reporting any more, at least so as not to be noticed. And they used to be good.

Is this typical for local news stations in other cities?

b_b