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The thing that's made it almost impossible for me to watch the news on television is that it seems like the announcers are constantly shouting everything at me. I admit, when I do have the news on I'm usually doing something else, and the TV is pretty much background noise, but I assume most people actually sit and watch. So why do the newscasters have to shout, if they've already got everyone's attention? Invariably, at least once every newscast, the decibel level goes up a notch when they scream "Breaking News!" accompanied by a fancy graphic that is the visual equivalent of a shout. More often than not in Los Angeles it's a house on fire, a street shooting, or a car chase covered by the "SkyCam," except that they happen so often here it's not news anymore, let alone breaking news. These things never even make it into the daily papers. The weather people love hollering the weather forecast. We never just have some afternoon drizzle here, we have "Storm Watch!" brought to us by "High Definition Doppler 7 Radar," which doesn't seem to me any more accurate than the old finger in the wind technique. In L.A. all you have to say is, "night and morning low clouds, clearing by midafteroon," and seventy-five percent of the time you're going to be right. Don't even get me started on the sports.
posted by John M Crowther @ 7:23 AM
5 Comments:
I have never been a movie or TV fan, much prefer reading my news, reading a good book or seeing a live production of a play or show.
I use my computer for the news so I can select which stories to read. You can get some great newspapers on your computer.
John, You can always turn the TV off! For years I did not want cable, but my children insisted, so I now have just basic cable and I agree the reception is better. But the only time I watch it is when my children visit..
John in the summer of 1947 I was picking apples in the Sonoma valley the weather was the same every day fog clearing by 10 am and then cloudless skies with a high in the 70s 80s. I later talked to a meteorologist who said the only interesting prediction was when the rains started and when they stopped.roger
Katherine, I could turn the TV off, but then I'd have nothing to complain about every morning. That wouldn't be any fun! My job as an independent commentator is to perceive the things that cause me irritation and then turn them into major traumas [grin].
Hiya, Roger. Yes, meteorologists deal with the weather, but the "weathercasters" are first and foremost entertainers.
[I later talked to a meteorologist who said the only interesting prediction was when the rains started and when they stopped.roger]
Roger... that sounds like here! This time of year it's either raining already or it's about to start! LOL
Great cartoon John! You hit the nail on the head. I think TV news exacerbates the sense of powerlessness most of us have and has much to do with escalating rates of depression. So many problems... but how to fix them? We can't...(we didn't make them)... and who would listen to our solutions anyway... (even if we had them?)
It's kind of anti-the-universe really to have so many problems we have no chance of, or choice in, solving. But if we didn't focus so hard on the negatives there wouldn't be so many of them. But people would then be bored... and need something to focus on... so they'd turn on the TV... listen to the news... start worrying...and then...you already drew the picture... you know where it's going... around in one humungous circle that has now made me so dizzy that I need to go lie down and rest me aching head! God I'm depressed...(((*&^(*$%#())) phee-ueeew!
John C., I can feel her pain, says she (pardon the paraphrasing) I predict at least another 6 months of the saga of ANS and the to-ing and fro-ing. Here in San Diego, a drizzle of rain calls for at least 4 days of panic and weather alerts on the TV. We never have a shower, it is always a massive storm that will dump atleast 1/4 inch of rain on the ground. More than that and they close the schools and public buildings. OK, Ok, maybe they don't close the schools or public buildings but we are warned for atleast a week about the storm of the century, ok, ok, maybe not the century but atleast the month!
Great commentary as always.
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