i don't watch local news

because it sucks. I was reminded of it last night, watching the local revelry broadcast by a young & obviously getting drunk blonde man.
You rarely learn anything of value from local news, unless there was a shooting nearby, and you want to know who bit it. Which is truly infrequent. Most "reporters" look like new college grads, freezing their asses off, or getting rained on, or hanging out at some local event that no one has ever heard of, blathering on with huge *pregnant* pauses. everything is a freak-out. they have to make news. is that what journalism has become? I'd rather know about city issues in detail. About where the local road construction is going on, and where the money is coming from to do it; detail on who is running for what and when for pete's sake! It is almost impossible to find out voting info, unless you're working on the campiagn issues directly. How sad is that? But I can tell you, by God, how many people got shot at the local QT a month ago - and about Jessica simpson's latest drama. Crimeny and what the hell? That is considered important to me? Too bad you can't choose a "My News" on your tv like a My Yahoo. Someone should invent that.

I feel like I can criticize - a. because it is a free country (so far & as far as we know) and b. I was a Journalism major. I met some of these people, and yes, most are just pretty faces who can read a teleprompter just *pregnant pause* right.

What happened to journalism on tv? There are too many damn "entertainment news" shows. I've found the only news where I can really know what is going on in my own country is by watching the BBC, or CNN. My daily NPR fix makes me feel semi-informed, but i know they have their limits. ( I should really read the city paper - maybe that is my problem). it's so much about ratings, that nothing worthwhile is even touched upon. there is a reason international news is either avoided, or gets a meager 30 sec at the end of a broadcast. in the u.s., the vast majority of people don't seem to care, unless it is entertaining in some way.

is this the media's fault? well, to an extent. if their audience gave a crap, they'd move the focus from "buffy the cat who was trapped on an airplane" to the hell that is currently Sudan. we can't do anything immediate about either situation, but it might open up some seriously closed eyes...

no idea where this mild rant came from...we're actually about to the point where our cable might go away. if it weren't for discovery, history channel, noggin, and the occasional ball game, it would have gone away long ago.

And that, my friends, is why you can't buy cable by the channel. 'Cause NO ONE would spend the same kind of money they do now in buying the ESPN Ocho channels individually. Please.