The shape of local news

Watching the news last night, I was reminded of the somewhat new comedy show on Comedy Central, Tosh.0 (which I happen to love, by the way). If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. It's a show that takes video clips--mostly from YouTube--and covers them with commentary and a great deal of humor. Usually the vids speak rather loudly for themselves but there's still plenty to add. And, really, this is what too much of the local evening news--"at 5 and 10"--has become. Not the entire 20 minutes but too much of it, for sure. They're doing their best to be both relevant and up to date as well as "infotainment" so people will watch and they'll get their ratings and, finally, because having those reporters on staff is more expensive but man does it make the news weak and irrelevant. You used to be to turn on the news and know what's going on in your city and region. You used to be able to know what local politico and/or agency was doing what---but no more. They have videos of "man bites dog" or some such silly, trivial and/or unimportant local event. And you know what? It's not the TV station's fault. It's our fault. It's our fault for being lazy and wanting the infotainment and light, fluffy crap. It would be nice to blame the stations but we can't. They're putting out the cotton candy we seem to call demand and require, unfortunately. So that's the way it is, this Wednesday, August 12, 2010, and it ain't pretty. Walter Cronkite is no doubt spinning in his grave.