Why is US News so Bad?

[mrbadger]

That is why it's really hard to judge whether the regulation of one country is better than the others. You can find some area that are better in one country but leaving you in disbelief in other area.


For example, the fact that the Sun is still in business is quite something. Yes, media outlet in the US is extremely bias but there are line they will not cross no matter what, and even in the rare case someone overstep their bound, they will always offer apology in face of public outcry.

Most people I know think of the Sun as little more than a comic for adults that has only recently started to grow up a tiny bit (by page three girls not being topless any more).

I have a copy of the Sun from the 80's that I kept when they ran a peice on Simon Weston when he got his CBE from the Queen. Possibly the only time the newspaper actually ran a story I felt worth keeping. I have that and a Times announcing the Victory.

Aside from that one copy, which I only bought for the pretty good picture of Simon on the front cover, I've never bought another.

[Jericho]

24 hour news.
They have to talk about something.
When the recent royal babies were being born, journalists were outside the hospitals for days. Studios kept cutting to the journalists who all said "Still nothing happening here! No news here! Nothing to report at all!"

They actually reported a complete absence of news as news. That is how desperate the 24-hour news cycle is.
You could probably do that constantly.

"Royal baby report, no news here!"
"Thank you John. Now over to Barry for news on the terrorist attack in London."
"Thank you Bob. The police still haven't released the names of the most recent victims."
"Thank you Barry. Now over to Mary in Malaysia with her report on the missing plane."
"Thank you Bob. The plane is still missing, the airline and search teams still haven't found it. The plane still hasn't landed at it's destination."
"Thank you Mary. And now over to David who is with the McCann family."
"Thank you Bob. Madeline McCann is still missing after 10 years."
"Thank you David. And now to blah blah blah..."

All that 'news' is exciting isn't it!!!!






Now that news is a business (TV news I mean, not papers), they have to get those viewers. Advertisers will not pay to have their adds show during a show with no viewers, therefore the news has to be sensational to grab the viewers, especially as most people have already read it on their phone before it hits TV.


What I don't understand is why the BBC falls into this category. They don't have advertisers, and should therefore be the bastion of truth and journalism... instead they compete with all the others (Ok, ok, not as bad as the others)

On the 18th April 1930, the BBC announced (and apologized) that there was no news today.

People will see that and say "Simpler times." But there were never simpler times. There was just stuff that they didn't regard as news-worthy. That upstart Ghandi was causing trouble in the colonies during April for example. The British Empire might have wanted to know about that.

Fewer Kardasians in those days...



Make TV news a revenue- free model, that all broadcasters have to abide by to retain their broadcasting license, and things might change.

Of course, that won't stop the awful click-bait stuff online... Unless the advertisers are boycotted or have sanctions placed upon them (and therefore they refuse to sponser crappy clickbait/fake/hyper-sensationlized news).... Which is the first step to censorship unfortunately (Youtube is facing a current advertising crisis with YouTube itself deciding what is considered acceptable to host advertising on for example).

[Chips]

You should check out the Guardian, they're still doing "Live Election coverage" rolling on 24 hours a day - also had nearly a week long "LIVE coverage of terror attack x" for both Manchester and London Terror attacks as well.

[philip_hughes]

I have set up a webcam in my backyard taking a photo of my lawn once every hour. Maybe a news agency wants to pick up the live feed.

[Morkonan]

I have set up a webcam in my backyard taking a photo of my lawn once every hour. Maybe a news agency wants to pick up the live feed.

Garden gnomes, they're the answer.

Put up a garden gnome and center your camera on it. Then, once a day over several months, squirt a different condiment on it... Mustard, mayonnaise.. maybe yogurt or one of those weird Aussie condiments (Made out of spider guts and drop-bear gallbladders or whatever?) or something.

And, once a week, throw a duck at it.

Do that for several months. Then... freeze the frame, remove the gnome and unfreeze the frame.

Headline: Abused garden gnome disappears! Foul play suspected...

You'll have the front page on at least three major newspapers.