Solely in the interest of truthful advertising, it’s long past time that the “Ch.7 Eyewitness News” was retitled the “Ch. 7 Interpretive News For The Especially Slow Witted.”
Seems you can’t watch a Ch. 7 report about anything — from a murder to a parakeet that tells political jokes — without Ch. 7’s anchors instructing us on how we’re supposed to feel about it.
On the evening of Nov. 4, Ch.7 medical reporter Dr. Sapna Parikh provided a strong, extensive — for TV news — report on the extraordinary efforts of Noah Coughlan to bring attention to Batten Disease, a fatal disorder discovered in children, who typically don’t survive past 10.
Coughlan, whose friends have lost kids to Batten Disease, had run across the country, an American flag flying from the baby stroller he pushed, to inspire both the media and the public to ask why.
Dr. Parikh’s report included an interview with a doctor who lamented that because Batten is uncommon there’s little chance that much research will be devoted to a cure, as a limited money matter.
When Parikh’s report ended, it spoke for itself. But that’s not allowed on Ch. 7, so co-anchor Liz Cho took it from there:
“Wow! . . . That’s truly remarkable! He [Coughlan] is such a hero! He’s in this because he’s raising awareness and spreading the word, which is truly what the people need!
“Thanks, Sapna; an amazing story!”
And thank you, Liz, for explaining Sapna’s report to us.
So it was so long, Ch. 7 News, hello, Ch.4 News.
That same evening, minutes apart, field reporter Jonathan Vigliotti presented a grabbing investigative piece on New Jersey bus and jitney drivers who continue to text and otherwise focus on their cellphones while driving—three months after a West New York, NJ, child was killed in a crash alleged to have been caused by a texting bus driver.
Vigliotti included covert video of one one hand on the wheel, attention on his cellphone driver, who Vigliotti claimed was one of eight he’d recently observed paying badly divided attention.
This report, too, spoke for itself. But Ch. 7’s dimwit-friendly interpretive news anchoring has spread toCh. 4. When Vigliotti’s piece concluded, co-anchor Tom Llamas chirped, “Excellent report!”
Yes, Mr. Llamas awarded little Johnny an A on his book report; a star, too! It’s now held by a magnet to the side of the refrigerator in the WNBC cafeteria.
Enough! There are now so many reasons to avoid watching local news— network promos posed as news, bogus “breaking news” and frenzy-whipped weather forecasts that call for winter weather in January— why degrade the legitimate stuff while further degrading your audiences?Whose idea was it to have news anchors explain what we just saw or to confer congratulations on reporters?
And why, other than the fact that no bad idea is unworthy of duplication, is such a bad idea spreading?
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Best Veterans Day Weekend TV came from cable’s The Pentagon Channel—live coverage of the Doolittle Raiders’ “Final Toast” from the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, in Ohio.
Only three of 80 Raiders—all in their 90s —survive, and they decided, although their silver goblets were not yet turned down to indicate their passing, this would be the day to cut the seal on that bottle of cognac.
A wonderful story was told from the rostrum, about the first reunion of those who flew those B25s— at first thought to be too heavy and unwieldy to fly from a carrier — on that 1942 mission to bomb Japan.
In 1945, the Raiders gathered at the swanky Deauville Hotel in Miami, where the night security man reported that they were “out of control.” Fifteen of them, including 49-year-old Lt. Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, even broke into the pool for a 2 a.m. dip.
The hotel owner replied that no group was more entitled, then had the Raiders autograph the security man’s report.