Posted on 11/04/2007 4:29:38 AM PST by BigAlPro
Is it just me or are we all getting pretty tired of FNC’s abuse of “Breaking News” and “News Alerts”? It amazes me that you can’t watch one day’s worth of programming on America’s “fair and balanced” network without being assaulted by these false overtures. The producers at the FNC must think we are the dumbest viewers in the history of television news.
The recent fires in Southern California provided almost every anchor on Fox with the opportunity to over-dramatize the events of the day. I’ve never seen so many “Breaking News” reports on one story in my life. And it wasn’t as if they were actually reporting on something that hadn’t been covered all day long or even a significant change to what had already been reported. Everything was just “breaking”.
In order for news to be breaking, it is supposed to interrupt the regularly scheduled programming. That is why breaking news used to always be preceded with phrases like, “We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you this special report”. Likewise, breaking news was always followed by the announcement, “We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.”
Hannity & Colmes are pretty much tied with Greta for being the worst when it comes to “News Alerts”. They flash that notice on the screen and start telling us all about some trivial story Shepard Smith “broke” six to seven hours earlier that same day. What is so alerting about a story that has been covered by every other anchor on your network?
When it comes to being overly dramatic, you can’t help but love Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera. However, the top Drama Queen of them all has to be John Gibson.
How is it possible to open your show with “Breaking News”? How do you head into a commercial break by saying, “When we come back, we’ll have Breaking News on today’s top story”? How do you have breaking news in the beginning, middle and end of a news program? How is anything “Brittney” breaking? Do they not understand the simple concept of “Breaking”?
As if all this weren’t bad enough, the FNC has become the king of speculation TV. When your interview includes questions like, “What do you think she meant by…” or “What is going through his mind right now…” you are no longer reporting, you are speculating. What could a retired Jersey trooper possibly know about a carjacker in California? If he’s not a psychic, he’s just another spectator and his input is nothing but conjecture.
Now, I don’t get CNN and I wouldn’t watch MSNBC if you paid me. For all I know, they may be just as bad as my beloved Fox. However, if someone doesn’t step up and do something about the over-dramatization of network news, I am going to have to turn off my TV and rely solely on the Internet for my daily news.
What is it going to take to bring some integrity to the cable news networks? Maybe we should get Bill O’Reilly to lead a boycott against all network news until they get their act together, quit speculating and stop abusing the once sacred “Breaking News”.
FNC needs to dump Greta “Clutch Cargo” Van Susteren and hire Glenn Beck.
They should use truth in advertising, and call these “Wind Breaking News”.
We are not robots who are expected to just sit and take it, whatever the "IT" is. We have minds and voices and we should use them when those in positions of responsibility abuse their authority.
Just because I am a Republican, that doesn't mean I have to agree with Bush's position on illegal immigration. And just because I watch Fox, that doesn't mean I should let them get away with INTEGRITY VIOLATIONS.
Shoot! I’d be happy to take that assignment myself.
“The producers at the FNC must think we are the dumbest viewers in the history of television news”, and if they do, they’re right. Thanks primarily to public schools, television, working mothers, and fast/snack food, America is dumber and fatter than it’s ever been, and no powerful nation has ever been as dumb or as fat as America.
It’s exactly what this article describes that pushed me long ago to quit watching almost eveything on Fox News except Brit Hume’s “Special Report”....and the very name of his show reinforces every point the author is making.
The other over-used local phrase I see and hear constantly on every local channel in the Portland OR metro area is “STORM TEAM” ____ (Insert your loval channel number here).
Forgive me, but Portland Oregon doesn’t know what a real storm is; compared to one of those frog-drowning, end-of-the-world thunderstorms that occur all the time in the South...
I watch Fox all the time, but I too don’t like the histrionics. If people say it enough and the right people hear it they might take heed.
IOW, the writer's strike will not effect me.
This isn't a "Breaking News" story. It is a story about "Breaking News". Or in this case non-breaking news.
OTOH; think the focus on much of the lighter side. . .charitably speaking that is - is done to appeal to the younger viewers.
If that is the hook that gets this group to Fox News. . .and at least, might expose them to some greater 'truths of the matter'. . .then I am willing to put up with it; or I can, of course, ignore it altogether; and check back later.
(. . .and have to say, think Shep wins on the Drama Queen. . .he is really good; but do like him; and appreciate John Gibson as well. . .and think he did just fine, withOUT Heather as co-'star'. . .)
Here in the south, it's "frog strangling". As in, "It's a real frog strangler out there, ma!" LOL
Go back to your ABCNNBCBS and cry about them!
In the world of INFOTAINMENT, Fox is tops followed by Glen Beck and the occasional Loon Dobbs on the Communist News Network!
I pretty much stopped watching news on TV, now its almost alway the internet just because I deplore these people and their antics of glory, and I doubt it will get any better.
I am with you 100 percent!
The quality of Fox is really slipping....I would like to see more relevant stories on issues instead of “Missing Woman of the Day” News Alerts.
Probably the only news show that doesnt pander to the latest Missing Woman or Hollywood CelebBimbo Gone Bad is Lou Dobbs.
I do like John and asked him to knock off the abuse just before the California fires broke out. They actually went one day without any "Breaking News". They switched over to "Developing Now" instead. Now they are abusing both phrases!
Maybe they take the name of the program too literally, and think they have to make up a bunch of Big Stories.
“Fox does nothing different then any other News Network yet the whiners continually come to Conservative websites to complain rabidly about the only network that is anywhere near fair to Conservative viewpoints.”
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Many “conservatives” want nothing short of their own Pravda that serves no purpose but to spew party propaganda, 24/7.
Fox's focus groups would soon show that a similar scale would get people to stay tuned until after the commercial and it would then become as meaningless as their "breaking news".
Catch Christie Paul on CNN.
She is more fun than a barrel of monkeys to watch.
I think she went to the "William Shatner School of Overacting".
I'm sure she sees her stint at CNN as a stepping-stone to stardom.
What a hambone.
If she gets horizontal she'll probably go far, though.
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