It has nothing to do with some gang running around Watts, it has nothing to do with some drive-by shooting in Watts. But they won't give me a background story that has meaning and interest to me as a resident of Los Angeles. What this industry needs to do is to turn this around. If they want to focus and emphasize the bottom line, there has got to be some rapid realization that the bottom line is also tied to credibility, to viewers' perceptions of the integrity of a news organization and the responsible presentation of news and information. If the industry keeps going in this direction, we will increasingly see viewers turning off those presentations.
TV news seems to have strayed greatly from a focus of responsible news presentation.
There are many reasons for that. First, we're seeing more of the money guys coming into editorial positions, as opposed to people who previously came from news backgrounds exclusively. And we are seeing an explosion in the technology affecting presentation and distribution. Technology shifts the focus and emphasis from solid news gathering and presentation. What is the rationale for going live over, say, some guy who might have been the victim of a carjacking at a gas station in the Valley.