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Do they even bother to read the nonsense they write?


monsoon

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I swore off local news years ago. They are horrible everywhere I have lived. I listen to WFAE local news updates. Brief but they report substance and not gore. WSOC is definitely one of the worst offenders.

I interned and worked for newspapers in Charleston. When I was asked to go check the crime logs I was only allowed to bring back "good stuff" meaning the bloodiest incidents.

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^ I have to agree that our local ABC affiliate is depressing as hell. Every lead story is a shooting, robbery, traffic accident, etc... I can understand that big stories are sometimes bad news, but does that depressing theme have to continue throughout the entire newscast? After a few minutes with this station, I sometimes feel like putting a gun to me head (but I couldn't let them have the satisfaction of making my suicide the lead story).
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I'm sure its been said here before, but local news is a consultant driven business. The consultants go around and basically pitch the same stuff to all of the stations, citing ratings achieved in other cities. That's why you'll see the same dirty restaurant, germy playground, regurgitated, warmed over crap everywhere. Same crap, different city.

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Here's one for you: yesterday's Observer reported a non-story about go-arounds on airplanes (when a plane that's landing has to "go around" again because the airplane on the ground is too close). This was the headline: "Planes nearly collide on runway". Now it gets even better, in the story the writer says neither of the planes were ever in trouble and that the flight in question was operated by America West Airlines. Um, Observer guy, AWA ceased to exist in September 2007 when its operating certificate was merged with US Airways and officially took the US name.

So then last night, I'm watching channel 3 and they do the same exact story, except worse--they used file video footage of an America West 747--an airplane they haven't flown since 1992 with livery and logo not used since 1993. Do these people not have access to Google?

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^^^I got a kick out of that one, too. I noticed that when the AP re-edited it for national release the headline for the same article said "Jetliner pulls up to avoid 2nd plane at NC airport." The article also states that it happens once or twice a day at CLT. I myself observed three go-arounds at CLT on a windy afternoon while watching from the overlook a few months back.

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The Charlotte news media, without exception, has become the equivalent of junk food. At the TV stations, I chalk up the change to when they went from 30 minutes of news programming/day to the approximately 5-6 hours/day on each station now. And if that wasn't enough, they are also producing the same news on the independents. There just isn't that much news in this area so they have resorted to high quantity low quality approach to filling the void. This is the reason behind the tabloid-istic nature of their news now. i.e. Scour the police reports for the most scandalous arrests and make a story about it and then create a poorly non-story using stock stuff like the near miss story.

In the case of the Observer, I think the corporate level value engineering has sundered the Observer from relevancy. Occasionally they will come out with a good piece, but its a rare day when the paper is nothing more than a few local articles where they report whatever is told to them without question, a bunch of AP reposts, and a few generic articles shared with the Raleigh N&O.

BTW, this isn't just a Charlotte problem as good quality news through the traditional methods is becoming a rarity throughout the USA.

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More scare tactics, Charlotte edition.

News 14 reports: "Uptown shooting turns into city's 4th homicide"

I read the article and it turns out the location was N McDowell St & E 17th St. What? That's like 5 or 6 blocks from the edge of uptown. I must have misread it; it must have said "near uptown." Nope. I guess News 14 is on the same level as some of the shady Craigslist realtors who would list this address as "in the heart of uptown!"

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This could also be filed under "downfall of the Observer"

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/breaking/story/501254.html (If they take the story down, I've saved the text for posterity and can post it.)

Its worse than a blog post. Not only is the headline "Robbery in Mint Hill?" completely unprofessional, but it is based on simplistic observations and completely unsubstantiated theory. You'd think with the layoffs that their remaining staff wouldn't have time to put up this kind of nonsense.

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Sorry for this rant, I know it is probably an irrational obsession, but the news guy on WSOC news at noon was relating the story about Jaguar and Buick overtaking Lexus in quality and he pronounced it:

Jaguire.

That drives me crazy! There is no 'i' in Jaguar.

Aaaargh!!!!

(sorry)

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Thats actually how many english people pronounce it. That is also how they pronounced it in their tv-spots for a decade or so. So he is actually not doing anything against any norm.

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Webster's Dictionary has two pronunciations for this word. You can hear them here. Generally, this dictionary is considered the standard for English in the USA. This is actually for the critter. I am not sure if it applies to the vehicle.

On this subject however, I find it fascinating the TV stations will only hire people now with no signs of any regional accent. Bill Walker of WSOC was the last hold out and that is because he was hired from the earlier days of TV in Charlotte. It just adds to the image of plastic bobble heads repeating anything put in front of them complete with fake emotions that can change instantly to whatever is being read.

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Webster's Dictionary has two pronunciations for this word. You can hear them here. Generally, this dictionary is considered the standard for English in the USA. This is actually for the critter. I am not sure if it applies to the vehicle.

On this subject however, I find it fascinating the TV stations will only hire people now with no signs of any regional accent. Bill Walker of WSOC was the last hold out and that is because he was hired from the earlier days of TV in Charlotte. It just adds to the image of plastic bobble heads repeating anything put in front of them complete with fake emotions that can change instantly to whatever is being read.

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I really think we need to start a campaign to get Bill Walker to come out of retirement and help WSOC. That place has turned into a shell of its former self.

Tonight they had a "Special Investigation" into the finances of CATS. They couldn't find any current or future elected officials to comment for this smelly turd piece of journalism...all they found was a guy who ran for City Council and LOST!!! ROFL

So what was the result of this "Special Investigation" that took "weeks" to put together? WSOC found out that a good chunk of CATS revenue comes from the 1/2 Cent Sales Tax. Yes that is the earth shattering "LIVE LOCAL and LATE BREAKING" details they "revealed" on their 6pm Newscast tonight. They also revealed.....brace yourselves for this...that the 1/2 Cent Sales tax collections have gone down recently and therefore so have CATS coffers.

They had one of their main anchors Blair Miller do the story. I really can't beleive they ran with this story. Hello Blair do you even watch your own TV Station? WSOC in the past has done their own reporting where they talked about how CATS gets a good chunk of their money from the 1/2 Cent Sales Tax. I mean that is pretty much general knowledge.

Bless your heart Channel 9.

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