Having Trouble Falling Asleep? Quit Watching the 11:00 P.M. News
It’s no wonder why millions of Americans are having trouble sleeping at night. Watching their local 11 p.m. TV newscasts before signing off for the day can have a distressing effect.
On a typical night, viewers are bombarded with “breaking news” about school stabbings, subway slashings, brutal rapes, stray bullets, hate crimes, 5-alarm fires, et al, ad nauseum.
Heartwarming stories about community volunteers and other do-gooders are sometimes thrown into the mix. But the “blood and guts” of these broadcasts is violence, pure and simple. It’s about time these “newscasts” be renamed “crime reports.” Because that’s what they are.
My spouse and I watch “News 4 New York at 11 P.M.” with regularity out of sheer habit. While doing so, I usually read my email and skim Facebook, Twitter and eBay. Without busying myself with these other activities, I doubt if I could endure the 35-minute broadcasts on their own.
Unfortunately, “News 4 New York” isn’t unique. We occasionally watch other local 11 p.m. broadcasts. They, too, specialize in exploitation journalism, as do practically every other local newscast in America today.
As for the “News 4” team, they are an earnest bunch, seriously reading from their Teleprompters about the crimes and misdemeanors of the day, with “happy talk” segues in between each vile story and commercial break.
One female anchor, in particular, has an engaging bedside manner. With the animated voice of a young mother reading to her youngster, she graphically describes highway car chases and natural disasters as if they’re fairy tales with happily-ever-after endings. Sadly, most of the incidents she recounts end up with someone dead or critically injured.
I often wonder if she and the other anchors secretly get pleasure out of regurgitating such slop night after night.
I’d also love to know why the show’s producers often send their reporters back to the scene of a crime or mass protest hours after it has happened. Do we really need to see a “live report” from a deserted sidewalk or empty parking lot?
And why is so much time devoted to the weather and sports? Isn’t this info readily available online and on everyone’s cellphone?
As if “The Big Apple” doesn’t have enough rotten incidents to report, “News 4” often imports stories of robberies, mass shootings and car pileups from other major cities throughout the U.S. and world.
Back in the day, most NYC television news shows had their own theater critics and cultural reporters. Not anymore. Instead of covering what makes the city exceptional, the powers that be would rather air stories about kidnapped dogs, bear sightings and bedbugs.
With newspapers and magazines quickly vanishing, this is an opportune time for local TV newscasts everywhere to rise to the occasion and provide their communities with more meaningful information.
Instead, they prefer to scare us to sleep.
