The Trouble With Local News

Here's the story: a reporter from a local TV station in Providence refuses to give up his source, and gets sentenced to six months' home confinement (the entire story).What interests me is what the guy discovers after six months of being forced to watch what most Americans choose as their primary news source, local television news: he figures out that it's too sensational and not serious enough. Helpfully, he blames us, the public. We want the shit, you see...
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Here's the story: a reporter from a local TV station in Providence refuses to give up his source, and gets sentenced to six months' home confinement (the entire story here).

What interests me is what Taricani discovers after six months of being forced to watch what most Americans choose as their primary news source, local television news: he figures out that it's too sensational and not serious enough. Helpfully, he blames us, the public. We want the shit, you see.

Now he's back on the job, presumably helping channel 10 be more serious. Either that, or making sure the bottled water is not purified tap water. Either mission is good.

My suggestion is to place all the reporters and, more importantly, producers and executives of local TV news in home confinement for six months. Maybe, forced to watch their output, they'll all figure it out.

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