NEWS NOTIONS Do you find that you have difficulty, at times, in “keeping up” with the news of the day on TV?
I do. From time-to-time, not often mind you, just occasionally, I have sought ways of combating such a feeling of being inadequate. Some viewers speak of themselves as being “followers of the news” as if they are dragged along and able, at times, to pick up scraps - bits and pieces - “snippets” of news here and there which can be melded into a story in some manner. There are also those who brag about their way which enables them to “keep abreast of happenings around the world” - a comprehensive absorption of all the many streams of information from around the globe. We envision a sort of relay race in constant progess to determine who can memorize the most from five minutes of spoken headlines every hour on the hour. The news remains always in a fluid or transitional state.
Try to determine what type of news listener you think you would rather be, before you judge all TV news presentations to be less than good.
So much depends on what type of news listener you think you want to be.
Last Friday morning when the business day along the East Coast areas, one TV network informed us that some nut had sent a message saying he was going to blow up a Court House at a specified time in the State of Connecticut. The note did not say which ones or where, and, for that reason, five Court Houses in major urban areas were closed and being evacuated. Federal Court locations were being swept for explosives. Before too long a camera was placed on a window ledge in an office building and we could see down through an tangle of communication wires and lush, green trees into a busy, downtown intersection in which normal traffic moved steadily. I assumed the large building on one corner was on the the five threatened Court House structure. It irked me that the TV news crew used that same deadly shot over and over and again during the hours which followed right down to a wet-blanket finish at the set time when not even a sparkler had been set off.
In general, TV news is well done. It is no easy task to keep it fresh, factual and flowing. Usually what you get is what you can absorb .You get what you are, in a very real sense.
A.L.M. December 3, 2005 [c366wds]
