Hurricane, What Hurricane?
I've had a Billion Dollar idea. I'm going to give this one away because that's the generous type of guy I am (and it would probably take millions to get it off the ground).
So if a person lived in Chicago or am guessing many other northern areas in the united states and didn't have access to cable news one might come to the mistaken conclusion that Hurricane Katrina was less life important and devastating than the events of September 11, 2001. Why do I say that? Television Coverage. None of the local area broadcast networks are giving any more time to Hurricane coverage than is already allotted for normal news broadcasts.
I woke up the day Katrina hit thinking, "I'll just turn on the television and see how bad things were." What I saw was soap operas and Oprah and regular day time programming. Apparently as long as the cable stations have the news covered there is no reason to upset the daytime television viewing audience by breaking into their programming.
Ok soap opera viewers here is the scoop. The baby isn't his. The Killer wont be shown until sweeps. The dead guy probably isn't dead. Yes they are having an affair. He only said he loved her to get her money. The wedding wont take place until sweeps. The gay son wont come out until sweeps!
I could right the plots in my sleep! If you miss a few episodes it wont kill you.
So anyway the billion dollar idea: A broadcast all news network. Instead of the news crawl they have on cable networks do and advertising crawl. With a broadcast news network poor people who still spend a large amount of cash that advertisers want, will be able to see what is happening in the world and you can get those middle class people like my father who refuse to pay for commercial television. If one of the major existing networks were to make the broadcast news network they could using an existing group of reporters and studios. There would be no new investments in those areas. Of course there would always be the possibility of advertisement synergy. For expanded coverage just tune into our twenty four hour news station.
I bet within a year a broadcast news network could tie up all of the non cable households and make a dent in cable news viewership.
Of course if I had the cash I would use it as part of the Master Plan (to take over the world) by inserting self serving propaganda in the crawl. People don't pay any much attention to it anyway but still their mind registers the words as they go by. Subliminal messages like "Rosenthal news is the only news worth watching." and "why would I pay for the news?" Alas me with no millions and the not enough television coverage of what is really going on.
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So if a person lived in Chicago or am guessing many other northern areas in the united states and didn't have access to cable news one might come to the mistaken conclusion that Hurricane Katrina was less life important and devastating than the events of September 11, 2001. Why do I say that? Television Coverage. None of the local area broadcast networks are giving any more time to Hurricane coverage than is already allotted for normal news broadcasts.
I woke up the day Katrina hit thinking, "I'll just turn on the television and see how bad things were." What I saw was soap operas and Oprah and regular day time programming. Apparently as long as the cable stations have the news covered there is no reason to upset the daytime television viewing audience by breaking into their programming.
Ok soap opera viewers here is the scoop. The baby isn't his. The Killer wont be shown until sweeps. The dead guy probably isn't dead. Yes they are having an affair. He only said he loved her to get her money. The wedding wont take place until sweeps. The gay son wont come out until sweeps!
I could right the plots in my sleep! If you miss a few episodes it wont kill you.
So anyway the billion dollar idea: A broadcast all news network. Instead of the news crawl they have on cable networks do and advertising crawl. With a broadcast news network poor people who still spend a large amount of cash that advertisers want, will be able to see what is happening in the world and you can get those middle class people like my father who refuse to pay for commercial television. If one of the major existing networks were to make the broadcast news network they could using an existing group of reporters and studios. There would be no new investments in those areas. Of course there would always be the possibility of advertisement synergy. For expanded coverage just tune into our twenty four hour news station.
I bet within a year a broadcast news network could tie up all of the non cable households and make a dent in cable news viewership.
Of course if I had the cash I would use it as part of the Master Plan (to take over the world) by inserting self serving propaganda in the crawl. People don't pay any much attention to it anyway but still their mind registers the words as they go by. Subliminal messages like "Rosenthal news is the only news worth watching." and "why would I pay for the news?" Alas me with no millions and the not enough television coverage of what is really going on.
More Laters
posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 11:06 PM
4 Comments:
I noticed that too about the local news.
According to the cable news, the hurricane is the only thing that is happening/happened. Admittedly it is a huge story but not the only story.
I have resorted to not watching my news and reading it online instead. It's a little more satisifying (to me anyway) to pick and choose what stories I find interesting and reading in that order instead of waiting to be shown what a network chooses to report on.
Those talking heads seem to get so sickeningly excited at someone elses trauma. Kinda like Kelly Prestons reporter character in From Dusk Til Dawn. Gives me the heebie-jeebies.
I get most of my news online too. I just sometimes want the moving visual not a still or a grainy streaming video in a tiny window. Reading the stories its usually about the ead and quite honehstly they are gone and beyond my immediate concern. I want to knwo about the living and whats being done for them and how they are going to cope with the imminent threat of disease from lack of plumbing. Its going to get worse.
Too bad most of our National Guard is elsewhere.
Your absolutely right. It is getting worse. Just overnight there was this prison story and this childrens hospital story. Fire and police communications are down and there is no one to direct surviors to shelter, food or medical care. Shit's hittin' the fan.
i wish i had a spare generator or that sallie mae would let me send my money there and hold off my payments a while.
news reporters really make me sick "so how do you feel" "what are you doing?" "did you lose everything?" "what are you going to do?" these are all nonsensical, bullshit questions. i just want to reach out and strangle someone.
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