As an avid news consumer, something occurred to me in the last couple of days. Fill-in-the-blank news stories seem to be very common, especially with human interest stories. For instance, every year, local television stations do their annual “time to clean up after the fair” story the second week of September. The story comes complete with footage of female prisoners adding to a big pile of trash on the garbage train at the fairgrounds.
Of course when the Dodge National Rodeo comes to Pocatello each March, we can bet the farm on a “look at how much dirt this takes on the Holt Arena floor!” story.
Don’t forget the “people have been waiting in line since 3:30 am to get their $26 DVD player” story outside Wal-mart the day after Thanksgiving.
And speaking of long lines, it’s always a fill-in-the-blank story when a new PlayStation or X-box is released, and peripheral stories of the video game consoles selling for big bucks on Ebay.
It’s almost like they could just take footage from last year, and nobody would know the difference.
What are your favorite regular fill-iin-the-blank stories, and is this an example of lazy and uncreative journalism, or just a tradition in the news media we look forward to every year?
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Great topic!
Gee- I guess I got so used to seeing that stuff for so long I just got used to it. I don’t think local tv news is lazy- it’s largely just not imaginative. There are a lot of local stories that are potentially compelling, but the news leaders never think about digging them up.
Your mention of the women’s prison in Pocatello got me thinking about that. I’m sure there is a wealth of human interest news inside those walls. There also isn’t ever much follow-up on the real interesting local news. I’m often left wondering how things were resolved.
A lot of it comes from the constant turnover of reporters, too. Most are new to the biz, and they either move up or get out. I notice a tendency to soften anything they say that might be strong, too… there are always a lot of qualifiers at the end of sentences.
I have compassion on the new tv reporters, often because of some of the strange place names we have here in Idaho. I’ve heard DuBois pronounced (doo-BWAH), Leadore as (LEE-uh-door), and Malad (MAL-id). I’m sure there are many other examples… perhaps we could put together a quick pronunciation guide here for new tv reporters to help them out…
I agree. We get so used to the names, that we often forget that according to English rules that we are probably not saying them right. How about Picabo? Of course Picabo Street made that one kind of famous. I have also heard Mackay pronounced Ma-Kaye. And the Tetons pronounced Tee-tun. And my grade school child informed me that I was pronouncing Salmon wrong — I wasn’t using the L.
But, from what I understand, most of the TV reporters are making bare bone wages, so I would think that would kill quite a bit of the incentive to dig too hard especially for those that are probably going to stay here forever, and aren’t just using the local channels as a stepping stone.
Hi, Native…
In their defense, I think the mis-pronunciations are more a fault of the news management than the rookie reporters. Most of the young ones aren’t from this area, or even Idaho, so naturally, they can’t be expected to know how to pronounce local names.
I’m sure a lot of the rookies would love to get a really important story that took some digging, too. That’s the stuff that makes careers. But they are at the mercy of the news bosses there, too, for the same reason- they don’t know the territory, and depend on their boss to point them in a direction.
What bugs me is the anchor people who have been here for years and still report the fluff. They should know better. I think some of them are simply lazy and want to be hand fed.
I am a fan of the “Christmas shopping is down this year; area retailers are worried about the low volume of shoppers. . . . ” seems I have heard that on the news for the past 15 years or so. They must not shop at the same stores I do!
Great post, Open Mind.
Easterner, that is one of the best. It sounds like you and I shop in the same stores.
Thanks Idaho Native. . .
funny, how I got a thumbs down for that comment. . . is an angry newscaster giving me a thumbs down?
Good one Easterner. “Sales at season low”.
It’s not a news story, but on the same front did you hear that O’Dell’s is having a Going-out-of-business sale?!!
Perhaps I should clarify for the uninitiated, O’Dells has an Emergency inventory reduction Sale Or a Going out of business sale about as soon as the last one is over. Itt’s a fill in the blank commercial. I noticed that someone was a little concerned about this.
We should be getting the usual Corn Maze/ Haunted House coverage pretty soon.