4 ms·

> There just isn't enough interesting news! There are interesting things happening in the world every day. Back in the days when I liked and watched CNN (i.e.

> There just isn't enough interesting news! There are interesting things happening in the world every day. Back in the days when I liked and watched CNN (i.e. 25 years ago) they would actually report on things happening in local communities around the country and would have stories and footage from local news organizations and affiliates. The "Breaking News" banner was actually (for the most part) reserved for things of importance. One of the biggest problems with CNN in its current form is that it's simply boring. You can tune in for 5 minutes and learn pretty quickly what they are going to be talking about all day. What's amazing is their ability to take a single headline and milk it on repeat for 72 hours.

jjk166 3y ago
Yeah but investigative journalism is expensive. A few talking heads and glorified zoom calls to comment on news someone else investigated is much cheaper.
darth_avocado 3y ago
There is plenty of news, if you consider positive or mundane happenings in the world. I remember our old local TV station would report things like park openings, local fairs, the high school football game etc. Surprisingly, they occasionally also managed to do longer segments on things completely unrelated to the local news. For example they’d get a local university professor to come on and explain the ozone hole for 60 mins or do a segment on pan handling scams that were supposedly taking over. There was always content, and there were always viewers.
santoshalper 3y ago
Sure, but all those local, interesting stories are far better told on the web than on TV, which is the real problem - people under 50 think of TV as a place for entertainment, not information.
m463 3y ago
Does local TV journalism exist anymore? Is there a source of local news for cnn to feed from? I remember decades ago lots of news helicopters and competing tv vans reporting something. Nowadays local news sources of all kinds can feed into youtube independently.
- bobsmooth 3y ago
  Local TV news is completely corporate owned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzYj11qWb-M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzYj11qWb-M
- hakfoo 3y ago
  News van news isn't necessarily news. It creates the appearance of currency by having a big "LIVE REPORTING" tag, which consists of someone standing where there was a fire/homicide/car wreck four hours ago. I'm actually surprised how aggressively local news seems to still try to fill the space. I assume it's among the more expensive ways for a local affiliate to fill airtime-- paying for talking heads and cameramen must be more expensive than Dukes of Hazard reruns. But you have local broadcasters kicking out a 2-3 hour breakfast show, then noon, 5, 6, 9, and 10pm programs. For a while, when ATSC was new, one of the broadcasters made their own "news channel" by repeating their six hours of local news through the day on a subchannel.

jjk166 3y ago

Yeah but investigative journalism is expensive. A few talking heads and glorified zoom calls to comment on news someone else investigated is much cheaper.

darth_avocado 3y ago

There is plenty of news, if you consider positive or mundane happenings in the world. I remember our old local TV station would report things like park openings, local fairs, the high school football game etc. Surprisingly, they occasionally also managed to do longer segments on things completely unrelated to the local news. For example they’d get a local university professor to come on and explain the ozone hole for 60 mins or do a segment on pan handling scams that were supposedly taking over. There was always content, and there were always viewers.

santoshalper 3y ago

Sure, but all those local, interesting stories are far better told on the web than on TV, which is the real problem - people under 50 think of TV as a place for entertainment, not information.

m463 3y ago

Does local TV journalism exist anymore? Is there a source of local news for cnn to feed from? I remember decades ago lots of news helicopters and competing tv vans reporting something. Nowadays local news sources of all kinds can feed into youtube independently.

bobsmooth 3y ago
Local TV news is completely corporate owned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzYj11qWb-M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzYj11qWb-M
hakfoo 3y ago
News van news isn't necessarily news. It creates the appearance of currency by having a big "LIVE REPORTING" tag, which consists of someone standing where there was a fire/homicide/car wreck four hours ago. I'm actually surprised how aggressively local news seems to still try to fill the space. I assume it's among the more expensive ways for a local affiliate to fill airtime-- paying for talking heads and cameramen must be more expensive than Dukes of Hazard reruns. But you have local broadcasters kicking out a 2-3 hour breakfast show, then noon, 5, 6, 9, and 10pm programs. For a while, when ATSC was new, one of the broadcasters made their own "news channel" by repeating their six hours of local news through the day on a subchannel.