More gripes against 4

I've been full of gripes against the local TV news, especially their special reports. Here are some of the things I've hated:

(1) Stories about how former sex offenders continue to exist and have some rights left. Every week or two there's another story like this. Even the laziest pseudo-journalist who can't sniff out any real news can think up new stories by the simple formula of "sexual predator" + VERB. Did you realize that sexual predators are allowed to buy corn flakes at the supermarket? Did you realize that sexual predators are allowed to work as plumbers and electricians? Did you realize that sex offenders use public restrooms? It's almost like they think they're people the way they go about doing ordinary people things. To give a recent example of how bad things are getting, last week, Illinois passed nine new laws all restricting former sex offenders; one of them included fifteen new automatic restrictions on parolees. Channel 4 just had a report that some sex offenders live near schools; that's where their houses are. With a school in every neighborhood, this is to be expected. The report is not in any sense fair. It actively promotes legislation which it calls a "a no-brainer"; it refers to proposed legislation as "this bill that would protect children"; and opine that getting sex offenders to not live near schools warrants "whatever it takes" (see the video). A previous report told viewers that what they had to report "should make you sick." I like facts rather than opinions in my news.

(2) Terry Jendusa-Nicolai is a woman who was abducted, beaten, and left for dead, some years back. The news had some new report on her every day. They probably felt they were being diligent and industrious, but really, how lazy is it to report the same story every night, and how unnewsworthy? "Terry Jendusa-Nicolai ate a salad today. Terry Jendusa-Nicolai went to bed early tonight. Terry Jendusa-Nicolai woke up this morning and shat out the salad she ate yesterday." More of her in the news this week. Let's have a moratorium until 2010.

(3) Lost Luggage. Not so much that it represents a trend, but this was a bizarre story. Apparently, when the airlines misdirect your luggage, they send it to an outlet store to be sold to the general public. This includes highly personal items and seemingly, some things that could easily have been sent back to their owners. If it was my luggage, I'd be outraged. The tenor of the story was -- wow, this is great, look at the bargains to be had!

(4) There have been a series of reports that have done nothing but advertise religion. There was a report on what seemed like a completely ordinary church, another about a church whose priests both had caught colds. There was a story about "Christian" videogames, promoting them as a kid-friendly alternative to shooting monsters, because in these there is no occult element, you just slay infidels or Moors. Violence is more acceptable when wed to bigotry. That smug bastard Tom Hignite who runs a lucrative home constriction business as a "Christian-based" enterprise but who screws his workers, was the hero of a piece about his hiring laid off Disney cartoonists to do a religious animated film.

(5) But I have to say that the pandering is in some sense equal-opportunity. Another report looked at a book on how to become a "pick-up artist." They talked to the author, mentioned a few principles on how to connect with chicks, had some sadsack put the advice to the test. Of course, the New York Times, reviewing the book, was merciless, attacking the shallow, manipulative and disdainfully misogynist premise of the book, which is that what you want is to be able to get cheap sex and that you are entitled to whatever deceit allows you to use and discard women at will.

(6) There are a lot of news stories that are really just free commercials. The last two notes are part of this. So was an article on private shopping sprees, plus all the new technology and trend reports and even the consumer reports, that are less about debunking claims than about legitimizing an advertised need which may or may not really exist.

(7) There was the alleged rape and murder of a pretty white girl by a creepy-looking older guy. There are a hundred homicides in Milwaukee each year that are scarcely reported, but this one has been sticking in the news. One of the reports was clearly promoting legislation to bring the death penalty to the state.

(8) A lot of my enmity toward the local news was laid out in letters to them that I wrote before starting to blog. I was particularly pissed at an error-filled story playing "gotcha" with people that were driving after revocation. There have been a variety of similar stories: People not paying their tickets, driving too fast in a school zone. It's a staple. Find a crime that is commonplace but widely viewed as trivial, and catch violators, who have no defense, then urge getting tough.

(9) Weather stories. The unusual weather may be the talk of the town, but unless you can identify some effect of it that I was not aware of, it should not be the lead story.

(10) Crime stories from elsewhere. You're seeing more and more of these, and I think they just grab this stuff off the satellite to fill time. A minor crime occurs in Ohio. Probably happens every day somewhere. If it were local, it would be reported. But it means nothing to anybody here.

(11) Tonight there was a story about gender-segregated schools. Reminded me of another one a while back about an Indian mascot issue. Both reports showed the claims of advocates, and person-on-the-street reactions that were uniformly uninformed. Never talked to anyone opposing the measures, even though we have a national progressive education advocacy group headquartered in this city which could have provided experts explaining the problems with these things.