My routine in the morning is to drag myself out of bed, let the dogs out the back door, start the coffee, turn on the local news, let the dogs back in and lay down on the couch for another half an hour. I am a night person so my entry into the waking world at 6am is a slow process, even after all these years.
I turn the TV onto the local news not because I like it but because it is usually annoying enough to keep me from falling asleep again. How can anybody be so fricking cheerful so early in the morning?
One particular segment that drives me crazy is their “Gas Prices to Drive For”. This little public service is a daily spot where they give you the name and location of a gas station that is selling gas for about $0.05 less per gallon than average. Let’s do the math. If you have a 14 gallon tank then you will be saving a whopping 70 cents. At $2.00 a gallon this is about 35% of one gallon. At fuel economy of 26 mpg you are gaining an extra 9 miles. When gas was $4.00 a gallon this drops down to 4.5 miles. You better not be driving too far for these “Gas Prices to Drive For” or you will actually be losing money. So, whatever, if they think they are doing us some service with this little segment, good for them.
Every Friday I watch them ooh and aah over puppies and kittens brought in by local animal shelter people. They report on stores that are having shoe clearances and the women newscasters giggle like schoolgirls. Yesterday they actually did a 2 minute segment, complete with camera panning, about how the traffic lady and the anchor lady both were wearing red suits with beige knee high boots. To call any of this news is blatantly ridiculous. This is useless fluff.
But this morning they went too far. They were reporting on a new set of octuplets that were born yesterday. Just to make sure we understood what octuplets meant, the reporter was actually holding eight dolls. She then proceeded to pass them around to the other “news” people. They looked like idiots, pretending to cradle their dolls. I am now forced to find an alternative station because what I saw this morning has convinced me that these newscasters have no dignity. There is no end to the ridiculous things they will do. Much like a car wreck, at some point you just have to turn away.
I turn on the local news first thing in the morning,and proceed to ignore it.
ReplyDeleteIt's background noise while I'm doing other things..
Actual news from Ashley of the blonde persuasion: '..at first it was believed the victim died of natural causes,..but an autopsy revealed he'd been shot in the head'..
I guess that huge hole in the guy's skull wasn't enough of a clue.
The funny thing is they never seem to realize how stupid they sound. It's as if presentation is more important than content. Which I guess is proven by the majority of things you find on TV these days.
ReplyDeleteI heard about the octuplets on NPR yesterday while driving home (I think it was yeserday, or maybe it was the day before..its all a blur). They interviewed one of the Dr's that delivered the babies and it was very interesting and intelligently done. But since it was radio, I have no clue if they were holding baby dolls or not! :)
ReplyDeleteI stick to early morning radio...talkback ...the one I get is excellent and he covers everything and anything...eing in his late fifties he also has a good general knowledge...he gets stuck into our dud of a Premier and crew...its excellent...don't put tele on till the evening...our tele news are crapola as well...i remember watching the news in the late '60's and the newsreader never pulled a face or commented on anything...the "opinion" on the news was left up to the person watching it...
ReplyDeleteLost - I would listen to NPR in the morning but they talk so calmly I am sure I would fall back asleep.
ReplyDeleteMC - I hate "news" these days too. Nobody ever knew what Walter Cronkite thought about the news he was delivering and that's the way it should be.