It’s a very rare occasion that I watch televised news. It’s outdated, frustrating and a more often than not a waste of my time. In my line of work, we like to say that print is dead. The thirty to sixty minute TV news show format needs to have a steak pounded through it’s heart.

Chances are, by the time something airs on television, I’ve already read it to death online. I’ve no patience to wait through an news hour for that 1-3 minute bit that I’m interested in, when I can get the same (and usually more and many different versions of) information from my computer. I can even watch televised news online, neatly chopped up by some diligent YouTube user into bite-sized, relevant segments without all the bullshit buildups, the “stay tuned” and “when we come back” crap that sucks you into watching the whole damn thing, even though you could care less about what Paris Hilton is eating in prison.

I also have strong issues with how television force-feeds you fear. Local news, wherever I may be always seems the most egregious. Health fear, drug fear, consumer fear, terrorism fear…protect the fucking children. It’s cheap, pathetic shit and I can’t stomach it. At least I can filter the bullshit with a web browser.

But, with all that said, there’s a part of me that watches crap news clips online, just because it’s so fucking outrageous. It’s kind of the same thing as watching wrestling or the Jerry Springer Show. How far is televised news willing to sink? Who’s the baby-daddy this time? Naturally, most of the time, this amount to clips of FOX News, be it the O’Reilly Factor or just the normal idiots.

So, that brings me to this clip. I’m sure some moron will outshine it eventually, but I think this may currently rest at the top of the heap as one of the most pathetic, outrageously stupid and fucking wacko things I’ve seen passed off as news in a while (you only need to watch the first half…I couldn’t find a better clip).

This anchorwoman, whoever the fuck she thinks she is, can’t handle hearing a bit on some logger who had to amputate his own leg, so she gets up, walks to the edge of the set. She sits on the edge of the dais, covering her ears and loudly humming the theme to the “Twilight Zone”, at some points nearly drowning out her co-anchors. This is all done on camera. Live fucking TV. Un-fucking-believable.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 8th, 2007 at 9:31 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.