Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Hey, It's Cold Outside, Did You Hear The News? The Moronic Non-News In Your SF Bay Area; Wednesday Starter

 It's cold outside in case you didn't hear or see. Yeah, it's cold. Generally it gets cold this time of the year being that we're near winter and when winter is beckoning it tends to get cold, I mean really, really cold, and in some cases, super cold, did you hear?
 
I heard KCBS did a five-minute phoner with a woman weather forecaster Wednesday morning who told us that it's so cold it may snow in the Sierra--you don't say!
 
And I heard anchor Susan Leigh Taylor ask if it really gets super-duper cold could we get some snow later in the week in the higher elevations. "Uh, yeah, " said the hyperactive weather lady. KCBS went further sending reporter/anchor Holly Quan out to the SF Produce Mart to ask a worker about the cold and its effect on tender vegetation. So, in addition to the regular, repetitive traffic and weather reports every ten minutes, we got bonus team coverage telling us how damn cold it's gonna be outside but I think you know that already.
 
KCBS wasn't alone. The albatross other all-news station did its share of cold stories as did the weather people on local TV news. It's the winter equivalent of the summer moron series where Bay Area TV/Radio people tell us that it's really hot outside and we get about 600 dumb actualities from Floyd the roofer in Livermore confirming that, yes, it's a damn hot one.
 
We've been down this road before. It should confirm the obvious to you, the listener, the viewer, what they, the news people, the assignment editors regard as important news as if it were really news, The fact that their may be freezing weather is really no news at all and even if that were the case, does it matter to anyone other than mostly farmers and botanical people? OK, yes, it's a bad deal if you're homeless and indigent and that sucks but again, we already know that and have heard it over a million times. Get a live truck out to a shelter--do a quick story, give a plug and tell the viewers where they could drop off blankets and coats. Boom. Done. Let's move on to news. Remember that age-old relic?
 
I've never understood the over-abundance of weather information we're subjected to here in the Bay Area, especially irksome when for the most part, the weather is rather predictable: fog near the coast in Summer and warm to hot inland...cool near the coast and chilly in the northern and eastern valleys in Winter time.  Of course we get the unusual high/low pressure system that gives us some snow, a little bit sometimes even near sea level but that's the exception. And if and when it gets to that point, then of course it's worth providing extra TEAM coverage because, God forbid, there's really no other valid time spent on the airwaves to devote attention to, like, say, the underground subway to nowhere and the politics and money behind it; the rather prolific junkets Mayor Ed Lee takes on trips to China and India; the numerous amount of bike and motorcycle accidents in the city that usually end up with someone dying; the continuing BART management-labor imbroglio; the cop shortage in Oakland and San Jose; the dysfunctional Mayor Jean Quan --you know, that little deal called real news, but that's not sexy enough and doesn't fit in the handbook because it's cold outside and you know, it's gonna be real cold later, did you heard the news?

Moron alert!


 
Follow me on Twitter and bring a sweater because it's cold outside.

17 comments:

  1. I recall a time (during the Joel Bartlett era, I think) when KPIX would have a contest in the summer. One or several Joe Schmucks would win and they would do the weather report during the evening news, it never changed in July and August, while Joel went on vacation. 24 degrees in Ukiah.

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  2. As an avid Gardener- some might say fanatical- I also am sort of a weather geek. And the weatherman hot air over the Arctic front is spewing. They wanted so badly to report "record lows"..that even though the eastbay was a mere 40f, Steve Paulson couldn't stop saying how cold it was. 42 is our average low of the day. Yeah,its colder then average- Stop the presses!

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  3. KCBS has been getting really lazy. It seems they often have producers read the Chronicle and reporters are sent to report the same damn thing. It's one thing to report and cite M&R stories, but more often than not they seem to steal stories since they rarely disclose the Chronicle had a feature on them first.

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  4. TEAM COVERAGE!!!!!!!!!!!

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  5. I think you don't understand the focus on weather news because you don't work outside, as some of us do, Rich.

    love, Auntie L

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  6. We know you like to pretend to know more than you do, but it's a fact that people tune in to radio news for 1) traffic 2) weather. Am I going out on a limb here by suggesting that news outlets know what sells a bit more than you might?

    Make sure you don't post this as well, in addition to half my other posts.

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  7. More on the subway please, Rich. It doesn't really surprise me that Lee has alterior motives. He looked like such a blowhard being front and center for his photo-op/key to the city with Batkid (loved Batkid btw). Quan from all accounts is just terrible.

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  8. > KCBS has been getting really lazy. It seems they often have producers
    > read the Chronicle and reporters are sent to report the same damn thing.

    Yeah, this is what they've all been doing for the past five years or so. They laid off about two-thirds of their writers and producers and this is the result They do read the paper and often nearly copy the text.

    You'll notice they also stretch regular news as much as they can. For example. someone was arrested for a crime. When he's arrested they show footage of the perp in the latest orange and they'll say he's being held for this and that. A few days later they'll run the same story with the same footage, to say he has an arraignment tomorrow. The next day they'll run the same footage and say he has an arraignment later on today. Later in the day they'll run the same footage and say his arraignment was postponed till next Tuesday. On the weekend news they'll recap everything with the same orange footage and say he has an arraignment on Tuesday, after his earlier arraignment was postponed. On Monday they'll remind you of this again. On Tuesday they'll say again he has an arraignment today. Later in the day they'll say he was arraigned today, but they'll have no further details. On Wednesday they'll say yesterday he was arraigned, and recap the story. On Thursday they'll inform you he's STILL behind bars after being arraigned on Tuesday. Over the weekend they'll recap by saying he's still in custody after he was arraigned last week, following a postponement the week before...

    They do all this repetitive coverage not because the story is all that big but because it's cheaper to fill time with this--and with endless weather coverage--than with investigative reporting, which takes time and money and skilled reporters. Any monkey can rerack the arraignment story. In short, it's the cheapest way to fill time, and that's what it's all about these days.

    However, Rich's continued pretend befuddlement at this, after I've explained it a million times already, is another example of the very same thing. Rich has to post something fresh every day. So we get the same half-dozen memes, one of which is why do the Bay Area stations do so much repetitive reporting on mundane topics. I'm sure we'll see it again the next time he has a "news hole" to fill, the same way we'll see the gentleman in the orange jumpsuit the next time the TV stations have one.

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  9. > We know you like to pretend to know more than you do, but it's a fact
    > that people tune in to radio news for 1) traffic 2) weather.

    There's no need to report on the same things over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over is the point, though I've explained why this is done numerous times here, but Rich keeps pretending he doesn't understand it--ironically for the same reasons the news outlets give us the same news over and over--to cheaply and reliably fill time/space.

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    1. that's a pretty well put response. Rich, care to respond? he's pretty much nailing this on the head.

      to some extent though, I think you're simplifying things somewhat. there's only so much news you can actually report. there's not THAT much going on every day, all the time.

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  10. Weatherman report the weather. That's their job.
    Traffic reporters report on traffic. That's their job.
    It's repetitive because they keep repeating current information for new listeners.

    No one said it's supposed to be scintillating, it's local news. Why is it necessary to ridicule these professionals for doing what they are paid to do?

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    1. Because I woke up this morning with an agenda to irritate you.

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  11. As a long time listener and viewer of both radio and television news I would like to plead with news directors in the Bay Area to actually dig up some real news. I am so tired of the police blotter news. Pretty much turned off KTVU News at 10:00 PM.

    What I would consider real news stories are so far and few in between. They know this too because they intermingle news stories that actually matter to real people between the crime stories.

    So how about some real journalism taking place in the Bay Area: What's up with high speed rail? How come cities are starving for funds (state taking all the money to balance budget)? How come California cities are now required by the state to build high density housing even though it will dramatically change the make up of the city? Explain to people why Congressional gerrymandering now has politicians choosing voters vs, the other way around. I could go on an on...

    But instead we have Heather Holmes in front of a garage of the latest grieving family.

    Please...real news...someone.

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  12. Rich -- any idea where the term, "cold SNAP" came from?

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  13. I get my weather report when I stick my head out the door at 3 AM and decide what kind of day it is. I have no need for the weather guessers.

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    1. you're your own guesser. a real doppler.

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  14. Do you ever talk to anyone outside your own head? if so, you'd know the cold snap was very much a topic of conversation throughout the Bay Area this week. why wouldn't they be talking about it on the radio, too? God, I'd love to hear a newscast produced by you one day.

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