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”.
It's too bad that there's not a news channel that isn't slanted to the left as CNN is, or as irritating and juvenile as Fox is. I would watch something like the PBS evening news programs if there was one that didn't report from such a very obviously left wing POV as all the public TV news programming does.
Or better yet !
“BEAVER NEWS”
My bigger complaint is that FoxNews has turned into the “Missing White Chick Channel”.
I think it has a nice ring. :)
No "almost" about it. With the exception of Brit Hume's program, most of Fox News channel's "reporting" passed that point long ago.
I remember when I first got XM radio and turned it on FOX. The “breaking news” audio was so annoying I had to turn it off. They are way too Ckicken Little for me sometimes.
Don’t you really love those news flashes when they are outside the courthouse waiting for a glimpse of the latest “”skank brat queen” to emerge from the courthouse?
Geez, when they do this, I find it amazing they even consider it newsworthy. LOL
Not amazing at all. It is exactly because Fox has had some semblance of fairness, and thereby earned our viewership, that we have higher expectations of them than their whorehouse competitors.
I haven't watched CNN since the first Gulf War so who cares what they do all day? I used to watch Fox reliably until the tabloid crapola began to outweigh the news value. Now there is no TV news outlet worthy of the name.
No, they are “NOT” all blondes.
Lis Wiehl
That is one of the ones I cannot deal with because she does get on my last nerve.
Sorry, like our friends at Fox, I guess I just couldn't resist...
They do “NOT” report the news anymore. Fox has graduated too hype, sensationalism, and ten-second news bytes. In addition, I do "NOT" care about Britney, Paris Hilton, or any of the Hollyweird weirdos. They should start another cable channel Hollywood Gossip,so, the news can be reported on Fox News.
Most of all, thank goodness for the Internet and Talk Radio.
“Can anyone say... “Free Republic News Network”?
I dare say you might be on to something there. Count me in as a subscriber if it ever happens. Drudge & FR are pretty much my main sources of news already.
I had to hurry up and get my shower over or I might miss Britney getting into her Mercedes hitting a couple cars, and running over someones’s foot.
That other stuff like wars, the economy, terrorism, what the President says...well it just isn’t news. /sarcasm
Then FNC would lose some it’s balance.
Fox and Friends is just hairstyles in the morning.
(with a heavy dose of Giuliani and Obama pimping)
The rest the news is dead blond stories and efforts to avoid real news by confusing “fair” with equal time.
The truth is never fair.
There is no “moral equivalency” in truth.
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