Can't Stand Local News

I don't mind it too much, but my husband refuses to watch it!! He reads all of his news from the BBC.

We too joke about the AZ connection whenever a disaster or big news event occurs. I am constantly hearing from him - "can you turn that off" or "change the channel". Not that i listen, he usually just walks into another room. ;0) Honestly though, i don't think it's just AZ that does this...I have lived in other big cities and they do it there too.

The teaser can be frustrating. They say "coming up next" and it's actually at the end of the broadcast. So now you just watched all the news. When they do this and it's a "teaser" if i am curious about....i hit the record button on the remote and later fast forward to the story i want to see.

The car seat story i wouldn't have tuned in for. Thats why we have a Consumer Reports subscription.

The one that frustrated me the most recently was re: car seats and a cancer causing agent in the material of the padding. They reported on this and then said, something like...but don't stop using your car seat. OK?????

The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.
~ Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915)

I am with you on the local news. I believe it was either yesterday or the day before I had a chance to sit down to catch up on the local news and the weather came on and they reminded everyone "make sure YOU drink lots of water and keep your pets out of the sun today cause it is going to be a hot one". Now before I get criticized for not liking pets, let me make it clear that I do love pets but children are alot more important to me than pets. Why don't those weather people make a comment about keeping kids cool and safe, or remind them to not forget their kids in the car??

It's a joke. The only time we watch the local news is to get a laugh. Just wait until monsoon season really hits . . . they talk about the rain like it's some complex phenomenon. And the teasers . . . those are the worst. And then the story ends up being about something that anyone who reads or watches "real" news has known about for a year. Our favorites are the dirty dining reports. "An employee's cup of soda was left next to the serving utensils." OMG! Alert the media! Oh wait, I guess they know.

What is interesting to me about local TV news is how much they depend on the Arizona Republic for their stories. It doesn't matter which channel I watch, they will report on exactly what I read about in the newspaper (not just the front page stuff). So they get up in the morning, read the paper, and know what stories to do that night on the news.

I've given up local TV news. I watch CNN and MSNBC and read the paper for my local news.

sure, fine, whatever

Oh I'll totally admit this...I watch Good Morning AZ and not for any other reason but so I can 1. get the weather for the day and 2. so I can get the low down on the stupid b.s. (movies coming out, restraurants, entertainment stuff, things to do on the weekend). Other than that, I read AZ Central or listen to KTAR.

"It's not to late to become who you've always wanted to be..."

Good Morning Arizona definitely has too much fluff stuff and doesn't really focus on the news. Who cares about bringing in "Rolfs" to do a Monday morning make-over when the average person can't afford to go and spend $200 or more on a color, cut, style, etc. at that place so it's going to do them no good to watch that segment .... or the several valley "chefs" from many swanky restaurants around the valley showing how to make some exotic dish that again the average person would have to go out and spend $50 plus on the ingredients to make it so chances are with the money crunch that's going on many people aren't going to be trying the receipe ..... or the several bands that they have on that are going to be playing at local venues ... come on is this a news cast or an advertising station to drum up business for local venues, eateries, or other establishments.

I use to watch Good Morning Arizona, but now I watch the Today show. At night I watch channel 12 or 3 for the 5 pm news and channel 10 for the first news of the night and then usually off to bed. I really don't watch much news, but do like my Today show :) Oh, not that hour with Kathy Lee Gifford though - no thanks - plus it is to late for me anyway.

I agree - way to many teasers that usually mean nothing on the local news. Wait until the next day and check out their web site and it will tell you all you need to know.

KarilouMomof2 is a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com living in Tempe. Her daughters are 9 and 6.

Yeah, if you think about it, we're not very good at looking beyond our own noses. How many stories do we really need about the Sheriff and his battle with, well, whomever he's battling today?

It's bad enough that the New York Times pokes fun at our news stories. Now that Senator McCain is in a full-fledged race, we're bound to see even more scrutiny.

We've got kids serving overseas an a couple of dozen countries -- many of them in flak jackets, neighbors losing their homes because their landlords can't make the mortgage payment, one of the worst-performing school systems in the country, and way, way, way, too many incidents of children not being cared for. The lead news story? Dust mites.

Dust mites have been around forever, and, so far, humanity has managed to carry on. So I ate some bad tomatoes and spent a few days frupping. That's not news. Well, unless I frupped on the sheriff, but, as I was in Colorado at the time, he was pretty safe.

The 1960 image of the "Ugly American" is, I think, being quickly replaced with the 2008 image of the "Arrogant American". And we don't have to look much past our own metro area to see some pretty striking examples of that.

It just occurred to me that, if someone asked me to name five heads of state besides GWB, I couldn't do it. I don't even know if it's more politically correct to call it Myanmar or Burma. You're totally right. We need to start educating ourselves about the world, and clamor for our new agencies to help. The dust mites will still be there.

I quit watching local news quite a while ago, for all the reasons listed. It's brainless. Also one time I noticed as I was sitting there reading the newspaper and had the tv news on, the anchor started talking about the exact same article I was reading about in the paper! Mainstream news organizations seem to have one source for news and just repeat the inane stories, or the anchors sit around and read the paper before going on the air.
Weird.

Ms. M