Posted on 01/15/2015 4:08:30 PM PST by SamAdams76
Used to be that breaking news was a major event. You'd be sitting home watching a television show and suddenly the screen would flash "SPECIAL REPORT". At that moment, your heart would just about stop. Then you would be shown a newsroom full of typewriters going clickety clack and men with white shirts and skinny ties with their sleeves rolled up would be dashing back and forth in the background clutching sheaves of paper.
The camera would then slowly pan to a solemn news anchor as the narrator gravely intones "We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a special news bulletin, now Harry Reasoner..."
By now, dishes are clattering on the kitchen floor as Mom dashes into the living room. Dad is putting down his pipe and newspaper. Little brother and sister are getting the "hush" sign.
Did a president just get shot? Did we just bomb some country? Did a country bomb us? Did Charlie Manson escape from prison? Did Martians land in New Jersey?
All those thoughts and more are rushing through your mind as you wait to hear what kind of earth-shattering event was deemed worthy of interrupting "Laverne & Shirley" or "The Love Boat" in prime time.
Only a handful of times did this happen when I was growing up. A few that I remember was when Nixon announced he was resigning. The Iranian Hostages were getting freed. A plane crashed somewhere. The lights went out in New York City and people were rioting. Elvis Presley died. John Lennon got shot. The Pope got shot.
You pretty much knew something major was up when they flashed that special report across the screen.
But it's not like that anymore. The news networks (FoxNews, CNN, etc.) have ruined the "Special Report" by claiming "Breaking News" pretty much 24/7.
Go ahead. Tune in FoxNews right now and you will likely see that "Breaking News" graphic at the bottom of the screen with scrolling text underneath it.
They ruined it. They ruined it for everybody. We are never going to experience those special heart-stopping moments again.
That all said, please don't be a wiseguy and tag this thread to Breaking News.
“BREAKING NEWS” helps to keep viewers’ attention on the TV screen for the next high-dollar commercial.
“Breaking News” is used by media creatures to create excitement in the viewer riveting their attention and thus sell products. There is a problem though; i.e. too much created excitement wears the organism down producing less response and attention, thus reducing product sales-GASP!
News is drama and drama is conflict. It’s entertainment. (I threw my TV away during the OJ trial.) You see this in almost all “news.” Articles have formulaic titles like, “The one weird trick (fill-in-blank.)”, “(Fill-in-blank) hates this!”, “The (fill-in-number) things you must know about(fill-in-blank.)” The wording of everything you hear and read about is focus group tested and psychologically analyzed for attention grabbing. The feeling is if it’s not a tragedy nobody will look at it.
Breaking news is broken. About like everything else in America now.
Why didn’t you put this in Breaking News?
I really do believe the Fox website is to blame because I don’t remember seeing this phenomenon until them. Truly it’s one of the worst “news” websites out there. I laugh at the screaming banshees wailing over the “conservatism”. Really? Where?
I’m not as up on my memes as I had hoped. What is this photo all about?
Shep Smith is supposedly the guy with his finger on the “Breaking News” button.
Breaking News is totally appropriate for what they are doing.
They are literally wrecking the news business.
“Used to be that breaking news was a major event. You’d be sitting home watching a television show and suddenly the screen would flash “SPECIAL REPORT”. At that moment, your heart would just about stop.”
Ha! That was me as a kid. I was a news junkie, and even when the regular programming would stop and that “Breaking News” still appeared on-screen, I almost had a stroke. Was it WW3? Aliens? Panic!!!
And can they get rid of the SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW scrolls at the bottom of the screen? I can read much faster than that.
Sean Hannity is even worse. Every commercial break: bonnnnnnnnnng OK, everybody, it's a Fox News Alert. Breaking News: Police are STILL* on the hunt for 3 men..."
*Breaking News. "Police are STILL..." ? Does he not get that breaking news should not include STILL--the STILL means the news is STALE. At least Ted Baxter is smart enough not to do it--gotta hand it to him.
Face the facts. We are in the death throes of our civilization. The left has dragged us into the Age of Stupidity, and we are either going to be destroyed, or we are going to "reset" like The Matrix. The news on TV is for 97 IQ betas and gammas, and THIS population is being supplanted/replaced by "Da Gimmedat" community, and the Turd World.
Shep Smith has his fingers, up to his wrist, somewhere else.
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