We’re Watching Out For You

I’ve written once recently about my dissatisfaction with the TV news people.  It’s symantics, not character or personality.  Maybe it is marketing.  I don’t know exactly what’s behind it, but it is irritating.

One station in particular has focused its message on “We’re watching out for you.”  I don’t know how that applies to accurate, informative news reporting, but they seem to think it does.  Somehow I get the impression they want to take care of me or keep me from harmful information rather than report the facts of an event. 

Their secondary marketing story says the listener wants not just the news but wants to be told how it impacts him/her.  How could they possibly do that?  How can news reporters know the needs of each individual listener enough to know how a story impacts them?  I mean, if I live in the city and there is a murder on my block over night, the impact on me will be much different than it will be on a person in an outlying community with sewer/water problems as their main concern.

I wish the news media could get back to reporting news events and giving the details, accurately, of the events.  That’s all.  If I listen to 3 stations I can get 3 different sets of details and the difference can sometimes be a matter of 3 people dying or 1 person dying.  It can also mean a difference of the criminal on the loose being 48 or 15, white or black, male or female.  Accuracy and details have gone out the window.  Of course, the stations need time to be able to tout their wonderful capabilities to the listeners and don’t have time to spare to actually do the job correctly.

If I could give one piece of advice to our local stations it would be this:  What do I, the viewer/listener really want from them?  Just the facts, just the facts.