TV News

When did the TV News, local, not national, although they share similar problems, become a weather report with video clips interspersed? Actually, I know when this happened, as I saw it happening and pretty much saw this coming. That was over 20 years ago.

TV news is all about ratings. You need people to watch - not to be informed. We now have a generation that expects to see car chases, fires, disasters on the news, even if it happened half a world away and has no direct bearing on their daily lives. Today our news showed a "riot at a school" which turned out to be grainy cell phone video of a rap concert where the news-readers told us a riot broke out. Nothing more than that. Mind you, this took place somewhere in Washington State. Why do I care when I live in Memphis? I don't.

There is no responsibility. While advertising revenues are linked to ratings, and news programs are rated, the news becomes entertainment. My solution would be to not allow advertising during the news. Period. And not to rate the news. The half hour morning and evening would be a public service, and SHOULD be a public service...it should inform and investigate.

One good case in point was an attempt to interview the mayor of our city. He appeared on TV following the second shooting in a city high school in a week (two different high schools). The reporter asked him a question about his recent appointments to his staff, following his recent (last fall) re-election for a fourth term. BACKGROUND: every appointment had a salary of over $100,000. Most were "deputy director" positions that technically don't fit into chain of command. Three of the positions were awarded to former mayoral bodyguards. The FBI is currently investigating past appointees with no experience, one who was a bodyguard who formed an IT company that quickly obtained many thousands of dollars of city contracts, then subcontracted all the work to companies with experience in other states. Anyhow, the mayor, instead of answering the question, told the reporter how insulted he was that the question would ever be raised. End of story.

In our city, the mayor and city government will just refuse to answer, or try to bully anybody who questions them, by proxy, for the good of the people. An ignorant electorate is in their favor - they just want people to do what they say without questioning it. Benevolent dictatorship under the guise of democracy. We actually had a city councilwoman break down in tears during a meeting where term limits were being discussed, as it was an obvious attack on the mayor and minority officeholders.

I expect to see her appointed to a position by the mayor as soon as she is not re-elected.