SX (In a beautiful dress) (2:57 pm): They had one like that on Fox and Friends, Bat
Wonderbat (2:57 pm): and Ewww @ Fox and Friends
Sailor Evil (2:57 pm): what is fox and friends?
Wonderbat (2:57 pm): A terrible, terrible "news" show, Vec
SX (In a beautiful dress) (2:57 pm): It's a morning news show on Fox News
SX (In a beautiful dress) (2:58 pm): The national channel, not a local one
Sailor Evil (2:58 pm): is that like a &*^% news show with rupert murdoch and ku klux klansmen as the
liberal balance side?
SX (In a beautiful dress) (2:58 pm): Terrible how so, Bat?
SX (In a beautiful dress) (2:58 pm): No. @ Vec
SX (In a beautiful dress) (2:58 pm): That's the O'Reilly factor
Sailor Evil (2:58 pm): heh
Wonderbat (2:59 pm): Because it's not all that informative and it tries way too hard to be funny and
"entertaining"
SX (In a beautiful dress) (2:59 pm): Dunno. Sometimes they're funny as hell. That and I can't find
any better morning news show
Wonderbat (3:00 pm): News shouldn't be funny =(
Wonderbat (3:00 pm): Unless it's intentionally not news
Wonderbat (3:00 pm): Like the Daily Show
SX (In a beautiful dress) (3:00 pm): I can't watch the news without some humor.
Sailor Evil (3:00 pm): news can be funny
SX (In a beautiful dress) (3:00 pm): It's too damned depressing.
SX (In a beautiful dress) (3:01 pm): That's why I watch F&F and Glenn Beck and Daily Show
Sailor Evil (3:01 pm): the daily show is funny and it basically is news
Wonderbat (3:01 pm): You and the rest of America, it seems
Wonderbat (3:01 pm): That's why the disturbing fusion of news and entertainment exists
Sailor Evil (3:01 pm): they've had funny morning news shows in LA for years
SX (In a beautiful dress) (3:01 pm): That and not many professional newspeople beat each other
with pillows on air
Wonderbat (3:01 pm): That's the thing
Wonderbat (3:02 pm): I don't want my news to be silly
Sailor Evil (3:02 pm): it's not disturbing unless the news is dumbed down to be funny
Wonderbat (3:02 pm): I watch the news to be informed, not entertained.
SX (In a beautiful dress) (3:02 pm): They don't joke around when they're actually talking aboyut
events
Sailor Evil (3:02 pm): what you can't be both?
Wonderbat (3:02 pm): If I wanted to be entertained I'd change the channel
Sailor Evil (3:03 pm): i find serious news worse actually
THS (3:03 pm): I don't know how it holds up in the US, but from what I've seen of it over here, CNN
kinda sucks o.o
THS (3:03 pm): BBC News and possibly Sky News are the best 24 hour channels over here
Sailor Evil (3:04 pm): because since cnn got bought by a conglomerate the news channels try too
hard to be serious
Sailor Evil (3:05 pm): they try to make themselves look "balanced" by being ridiculously politically
correct to the conservatives especially and not offending anybody
Hot Sexual Water (3:05 pm): i absolutely hate the idea of news/entertainment fusion, but i loved the
clips of the net neutrality thing
Sailor Evil (3:05 pm): mccarthy would never get exposed on tv news today
To clarify, mainstream news tries to look credible, but they're extremely bad at it. The worst is the superficial balance, but another thing is that they try very hard to make it seem dramatic with ridiculous graphics and melodramatic reporters. I realize this is part of the news & entertainment fusion being discussed, but it also seems to have become the networks' chosen way of not looking like entertainment or propaganda.
So combining entertainment & news can be advantageous. To say it's necessarily wrong is pretentious IMO. And when it is combined, I consider funny news to be a better technique. People call the Daily Show fake news, but is that just because of the presentation? I think that's more true of a network like CNN on which the dramatacism and silliness is supposed to be taken as part of the information.
I said that in the chat, but for those of us who won't read any post more than a few sentences long, Tussy, I'll say it here.
I prefer a bit of humor in between seriousness in news. Otherwise, it's just too damn depressing for me. Not exactly a "Newstertainment" fan, but dead-serious people taalking about terror and anthrax and rape and death and West Nile and burglary and politics and Iraq and Isreal and war...It just depresses the hell out of me. Smartly-timed humorous skits or remarks is a great way to break that tension.
Hey! I read a max of 10 sentences on each post, after the 10 sentences I just .... well glance below to see the rest because most post that exceed 10 sentences are either copy and pasted news stories or someone ranting about blowing up the moon and such.
I've taken a few classes on broadcast news-writing (That is writing news copy that will be read aloud either on TV or on radio), and one of the things they try to teach yo is to approach things conversationally. Think about how most conversations you have with friends go. You may discuss some depressing current events, but you rarely keep it all doom and gloom. That's where most silly banter on news programs come in.
Personally, I can't stand it, and it's one of the reasons I switched from broadcast to print journalism.
Quote:
Wonderbat (3:02 pm): I watch the news to be informed, not entertained.
Wonderbat (3:02 pm): If I wanted to be entertained I'd change the channel
Seconded. That's one of the reasons why there aren't any news programs around that I can watch. I've become almost a strictly newspaper/Internet-bound in terms of getting news. Using the Daily Show (or anything on Comedy Central) as an example just further proves what a joke the news on TV has become in many regards. In general, TV news around here is only good for pictures, particularly since my 'net access is so slow.
Edit: Oh yeah, forgot one other good thing--local news can be good for weather, but there's also the Weather Channel with local "updates on the 8s" for that too. ;p
I jus watch the news to see if anything 'important' has happened like important local events or major local news stories.
<i>Hey! I read a max of 10 sentences on each post, after the 10 sentences I just .... well glance below to see the rest because most post that exceed 10 sentences are either copy and pasted news stories or someone ranting about blowing up the moon and such.</i>
<i>what the flying f*ck did you think I was talking about</i>?
