http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mkfeCqBuy4
While savvy Channel 4 News (U.K.) gets even better, lazy U.S. TV network & cable newscasts AND shallow South Florida TV newscasts race to the bottom.
It's okay, you're among friends.
You don't have to be shy about venting your frustration about how embarrassingly banal the American network TV newscasts have become of late, of the utterly predictable never-ending dog-chasing-its-tail quality of the U.S. cable newscasts, or the brain-dead nadir that local South Florida TV newscasts reached over this past summer, where you thought they couldn't go any lower and get any more insipid -but then they do.
And you are dumb-struck once again.
And you are reminded all over again what part of America you live in.
The part of America where they can't support a News Radio format.
For instance, recently, the 11 o'clock newscast of one Miami TV station really DID spend more time talking about who might be featured on a prospective Miami-based "Housewives" reality show than they did on what had happened that day at the Broward County Commission's FY 2011 Budget meeting in Fort Lauderdale, and what some of the programs slated to be cut might be and their impact on citizens.
And to compound this, they also DIDN'T mention which Broward commissioners voted for or against the 2011 budget, nor display the names or tally on-screen.
Yes, actual votes by elected officials, that boring civics stuff, especially when compared to talking about dopey Miami wannabe celebs, whom we just know in our hearts will be loathed across the country like they already are among their small circle of friends in the 305 or 954.
And if you're thinking globally not locally, the antidote for all that shallowness, banality and low-quality journalism is closer at hand than you might otherwise think.
And no, I'm not talking about the new and highly-popular Breaking News Twitter feeds, http://twitter.com/BREAKINGNEWS, though for some people, though not me personally, that may actually be a nice addition to their handy news toolbox.
I've written often here over the past year or so about how much I've integrated the Channel 4 News (U.K.) and BBC Radio 5 live diet of news and information into my busy schedule to make more sense of the world.
Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/#two
Listen LIVE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_five_live
Especially since I no longer get the hard copies of all the international relations and foreign policy journals I subscribed to when I was living up in the Washington, D.C. area, and actually could use what I already knew and had read at events at embassies, the IMF, the World Bank, SAIS and myriad think tanks, plus the great schedule of Russian-related events they had over at the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center, under Blair Ruble, back when it was inside of the Smithsonian's castle on The Mall.
http://wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm
http://wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1424&fuseaction=topics.profile&person_id=4997
The very informative post-Noon Channel 4 email news updates I receive like clockwork before 1 p.m., the so-called Snowmail, named after veteran news presenter Jon Snow, and authored by him and other Channel 4 correspondents, gives me a real insightful head's up for what to expect later in the day on that night's newscast at 1900 G.M.T., but which I watch much later.
The fabulous Catch Up service on their website allows me to look back at anything that I may have missed within the past 7 days, which tends to happen a lot in the middle of the week due to evening local government meetings I attend.
As I've stated here previously, I often find myself watching the missed news segments on Saturday mornings before I get around to watching the Premier League matches on Fox Soccer Channel, or something on The BigTenChannel.
Plus, the Channel 4 broadcasts are broken down into news segments that are embeddable, thus making them perfect for blogs and websites, as I've used plenty here over the past year to great effect.
Well, at the end of September I received this new video from London that's p at the top of this post, and I think it gives you a pretty good appreciation for what is now available to you if you want to know what's going on in the real world outside of the rather shallow intellectual confines of the Sunshine State.
Such a deeply distressing story on so many levels...
Aid worker may have been killed by US grenade in Afghanistan
Jonathan Rugman reports aid worker Linda Norgrove may have been killed by US grenade in Afghanistan.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid601325122001?bctid=631900533001
Channel 4 News homepage: http://www.channel4.com/news/
Channel 4 News Catch Up Service: http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/
Channel 4 Blogs homepage: http://blogs.channel4.com/news/
