Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Snews that's fit to print
I have to confess. When it comes to local news, I am an ostrich - my head is firmly planted in the sand. Yeah, I know - it's irresponsible, but I have a responsibility to my health to keep my blood pressure down!
Years ago, I gave up on the local TV news. The competition to outdo each other on "Live-Late Breaking," if it bleeds, it leads, so called news wore me out. Rarely was there a story or "late-breaking" news that I felt carried any relevance to my life in general, informed me of something that was compelling or that I needed to know.
However, there are exceptions. During tornado season, you can't get any better weather reports than from an Oklahoma meteorologist. And during a disaster, the local stations step up to the plate - they showed the right stuff at the time of the Murrah bombing, putting the national media to shame. The same was true for the May 3rd, 1999 night of tornadoes that ripped a good part of Oklahoma apart.
Next to go was the local paper. Our city rag is mostly fluff, containing little to no journalistic reporting. From time to time, though, I pull up the online version to check in with what's going on, especially during election season.
Today I was cruising through some local election results and stumbled upon a bulletin board loaded with discussions about our community, relevant news and sprinkled with a few odd musings here and there.
As I scrolled through various postings, I was struck by the similarity to the coffee clatches that can be found in various cafes and restaurants around any smallish community. There was only a handful of posters musing about the this and that's of our town. It was kind of quaint.
There were a couple of items that I pulled to share. One was a link to this video. Although I'm an animal lover, I'm not a fan of PETA - but I loved the ad.
Second was this article about a church that canceled a gun giveaway:
But what got an out-loud guffaw out of me was the list of links at the bottom to other stories. I'll let the screenshot speak for itself:
I'd like to meet the copy editor or programmer responsible and give 'em a high five.
Years ago, I gave up on the local TV news. The competition to outdo each other on "Live-Late Breaking," if it bleeds, it leads, so called news wore me out. Rarely was there a story or "late-breaking" news that I felt carried any relevance to my life in general, informed me of something that was compelling or that I needed to know.
However, there are exceptions. During tornado season, you can't get any better weather reports than from an Oklahoma meteorologist. And during a disaster, the local stations step up to the plate - they showed the right stuff at the time of the Murrah bombing, putting the national media to shame. The same was true for the May 3rd, 1999 night of tornadoes that ripped a good part of Oklahoma apart.
Next to go was the local paper. Our city rag is mostly fluff, containing little to no journalistic reporting. From time to time, though, I pull up the online version to check in with what's going on, especially during election season.
Today I was cruising through some local election results and stumbled upon a bulletin board loaded with discussions about our community, relevant news and sprinkled with a few odd musings here and there.
As I scrolled through various postings, I was struck by the similarity to the coffee clatches that can be found in various cafes and restaurants around any smallish community. There was only a handful of posters musing about the this and that's of our town. It was kind of quaint.
There were a couple of items that I pulled to share. One was a link to this video. Although I'm an animal lover, I'm not a fan of PETA - but I loved the ad.
Second was this article about a church that canceled a gun giveaway:
The event? A weekend youth conference. Yes. A semiautomatic assault rifle in the hands of a teenager - the path to Jesus.
Windsor Hills Baptist had planned to give away a semiautomatic assault rifle until one of the event's organizers was unable to attend.
But what got an out-loud guffaw out of me was the list of links at the bottom to other stories. I'll let the screenshot speak for itself:
I'd like to meet the copy editor or programmer responsible and give 'em a high five.
Labels: Local
Posted at 11:04 AM | |
