you ever wonder why its taken as a given that local over the air news on nbc, abc, etc always has to focus on murder?
plenty happens in a city from day to day, but turn on local news and it's constant reports of murder, murder, murder, murder at the top of every hour, right after ellen.
i was a broadcast journalism major, trained to produce local news segments. I could do it well, and could have gotten a job doing so at a small market immediately.
but the over-reliance on murder, murder, murder, MURDER in local news was something I couldn't be complicit in morally.
you know what's more common than death by firearm and has been my entire life? motor vehicle accidents. if the news reported on every car accident that killed someone the same way they reported on crime generally committed by black people* you'd never want to get into a car the rest of your life.
*because scared, paranoid, cloistered, car-dependent white people with disposable income who live in intentionally segregated suburbs make for great marks to sell products to
instead, car accidents are attributed to user error so they can cut to break before the weather (which, by the way, is why 80% of people watch local news) and show ads for car dealerships
local news and car culture feed each other. a city built for the car comes from a place of intentional isolation, of fear, of white flight. local news perpetuates that, and car dealerships need it
this is tv local news.
this has always been local news on tv, since ktla sent out the first ever news helicopter to live film the watts riots in 1965.
it was local news in the late 80s, when rick sanchez rose as the anchor of wsvn channel 7 in miami with their "if it bleeds, it leads" eyewitness news format.
(sanchez, btw, was later fired from cnn for saying that jon stewart is bad because jews run the media. really)
it's still local news today--a medium people watch for the weather, and in exchange get served promos for tonight's programs, racist, one sided coverage of crime, and ads.
its toxic, and needs to change
pinning this thread because its one of my favorites I've ever done
final point. i know this is gonna be a jarring statement, but I mean it:
local news coverage in america in many ways might as well just be the "black crime" tag on breitbart, because the difference is often just that breitbart said what local news mainly implied
media consolidation (like sinclair, cox, etc) has made this noticably worse, but make no mistake: tv local news has always placed a focus on scaring white people about black people
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