And NEWSPAPERS are in trouble?

The CBS affiliate in the DFW market has a dufus for a news director. Regent Ducas recently sent this newsletter to his staffers. Add your own "signs of the apocalypse" comments:

"As we're doing live shots and writing . . .
Think: EMOTION & Conversational.
Viewers (people) remember emotion, not facts . . .
Critical facts are important, not all facts are.
I've seen a little too much 'police speak' or 'court speak.'
The suspect faces charges of blah, blah, blah, . . . no one will remember this fact and it's not that important . . .
If the suspect faced the 'death penalty' or capital murder charges, etc.' . . . then that would be important . . . but, for the most part, someone's next court date is not . . .
Think emotion . . .
This neighborhood tonight is in a state of panic, not sure what do to (sic) next.
Fans have decided to stay away from the ballpark, they'd rather spend their money elsewhere.
Feel free to stop by, email or talk about any of this."

Regent

 

Actually, most of his points are pretty good. The "neighborhood in a panic" line is brutal, though.

It's a different medium. Stuff that belongs in a newspaper article sometimes doesn't work in a TV news report.

 

Sorry, PCLL. I happen to think that's pretty important.

 

It depends. If it's "The suspect is facing first degree murder charges," yes. If it's "the suspect faces charges of 2nd degree pandering, two counts of criminal mischief, and three misdemeanor counts of trespassing," then no -- it belongs in a newspaper account but not in the TV version. The list of counts doesn't register with someone who's watching but not reading.

 

I always get a lot more out of a story about an incident at a school when the reporter is reporting LIVE from outside the school at 11 p.m.

 

Well, if the charges are that minor, you probably shouldn't be running the story on the local TV news anyway, what with the incredibly tight "airhole." But if a story involving charges runs, you have to say what they are. Otherwise, you're making the viewer imagine the worst.

 

I enjoyed the run-on sentences. There were at least two by my count.

 

And ondeadline, that's the best combo of animated gifs on a profile EVER.

 

My point was the laundry list of charges, not the relative importance of them.

To put it more clearly, "He's facing assault and trespassing charges" is better than "The suspect faces three counts of assault, two counts of criminal trespass, blah blah blah..." Again, if the charges are really major, like murder or rape, listing the number of charges is fine. In most cases it should be made very general because it won't register with the viewer otherwise.

 

Your clarification has merit.

But the main point still: Idol isn't fixed.

 

Even more stimulating is a report from someone "live in the newsroom!"

Ugh.

 

Oh, totally agreed on the fixing part. I was just being pissy about the Taylor vs. Katherine part of it!