It isn't news for exactly the sort of reason given with this Britney Spears example.
If the leading news story isn't something inane such as that, the general rule for local TV news shows is: "if it bleeds, it leads." This rule alludes to the propensity for people to rubber-neck. If the TV news chopper shows pictures of a huge wreck of several vehicles out on the interstate, followed by closeups of the wreckage by the ground crew, it's a natural human tendency to stop and watch. But almost no information is imparted to the view in such reports, and it's not news you can use. If you travel that same interstate, the next morning the previous day's wreck will have long since been cleared and forgotten.
The same is true when the TV news reports on holdups at the 7-11, apartment or house fires, or an ongoing "in depth" coverage of some local murder story ("depth" in the TV business is all of a tenth of a millimeter deep).
Once you get past the bleed leads, there's a brief report on what new anti-freedom legislation was passed by the state legislature or a minute of news from around the world, then it's onto "fluff pieces": an important bake sale at a local church to raise funds for some cause, or a "feel good" story about a mother and daughter being re-united. Sometimes the "fluff piece" or the "feel good" piece is run at the very end of the broadcast, to leave you with a good feeling.
What isn't reported are the pieces of legislation being introduced in the legislature, the progress of such bills, stories that are incriminating of the corporate sponsors of the news shows, in-depth reporting on corruption in the judiciary, and a whole lot more. No, TV news is a world of vehicle pile-ups, robberies, shootings, murders, 5-K runs, church bake sales, celebrities in town, and "hard-hitting" investigations of mildew in home basements or how local hotels skimp on cleaning the laundry. It's a strange world, one that nobody actually inhabits.
If you're dependent on local TV for the weather or sports, the weather comes on about the same time each night, somewhere between 15 to 20 minutes after the hour. (But, beware though, of a brief weather report early on during the newscast, where they give you a few "teasers" about "details that will be coming up later" in the show -- that's not the actual weather segment.) Sports comes on at about 25 minutes past the hour (unless it's some major story about a local team winning big, in which case it might be a meaningless lead that even trumps the bleed leads).
But, an intelligent person who uses a computer should ask him or herself a question: If it's news, weather, and sports information you want, why bother with TV when you can get both the same information online and a whole lot more as well?