This just in . . . A large sinkhole formed today on the Henry Hudson Parkway. Police are looking into it. The shameless and desperate state of TV news now demands that its shot callers ask themselves the rhetorical question, “Why exaggerate when we can outright lie.”
There is now a new and pervasive use of an old and sacrosanct expression in the news business, “Breaking news!”—the broadcast equivalent of “Stop the presses!” and, nominally the street equivalent of hollering, “Fire!”
“Breaking news!” on TV is now applied to almost everything, anything and often nothing. As you watch TV this week, see and hear for yourself. “Breaking news!” is attached to half day old stories, minor details that follow legitimate breaking news, minor news, live helicopter coverage of a stalled car on the BQE and, of course, the latest repetitive non-update update about the 2 inches of snow expected overnight in, of all months, January.
There is a boy-who-cried Wolf Blitzer element to all this that violates the minimum standards of both journalism and civil, good-faith behavior.
On the night of Jan. 19,MSNBC flashed a large and worrisome “Breaking News” graphic to its national audience. This large print breaking news followed: “South Carolina Republican Debate Has Just Ended.” For crying out loud, don’t do that to people!
It is no longer unusual to watch a “Breaking News!” report conducted from Midtown in daylight while a quick peek out the window confirms your suspicion that the sun already disappeared in the west.
Breaking News! on Fox 5’s newscasts has shown up as the name of the new judge on “American Idol,” and on Ch.7 News as the new roster of “Dancing With the Stars” contestants.
Imagine if a credentialed reporter shoved open the doors to the newsroom and shouted, “Breaking news! There’s a one alarm dumpster fire in a vacant lot in Ozone Park!” The news folks in the room would regard him or her as a knucklehead . . . then would be instructed to get busy making “Breaking News!” of the story. “Get News Copter 14 over there, right away!” What could once get one fired as an alarmist can now make one a TV news star, the station’s go to guy or gal.
“I’m standing here, live, on 34th and 3rd, where you can plainly see—can we get the camera in here a little tighter?—where the snow removal truck has just left a thin layer of salt pellets atop this equally thin layer of snow. Soon, this snow should be turning to slush, then wash away toward that street drain, over there.
“Meanwhile, the Mayor’s Office is advising motorists to drive carefully. Back to you in the studio, Ralph and Chantel.”
“Thanks for that, Jennifer. And we’ll certainly continue to keep a close eye on that breaking story as it unfolds. And for more on how to avoid drowning and holiday cooking recipes, visit our Web site at 14OnYourSide.com.”
Last Sunday during Ch.7News’ 11 p.m. newscast, anchor Sandra Bookman, roughly a half hour after the Giants defeated the 49ers, reported the result as “breaking news.” How can news that has been broken be breaking? Or, as Popeye said while trying to read a menu written in Arabic, “I cans read writin’, but not when the writin’s written rotten.”
That leaves us with this: How, now, should legitimate, dead serious breaking news be prefaced? “This time we’re not kidding Breaking News”? “Cross my heart, swear to God Breaking News”? After all, it’s not as if current, just following orders news managers and directors will soon be handed directives to cease being dishonest and start treating viewers who value the news with slightly more regard than a collection of dopes.