It ain't easy being a talking head
As I listen to the news station (Channel 7) drone on about all the many fires, I have to give credit to the TV people. It's not easy to have to yak for hours as happens during these periodic crises when at times you don't have much news but non-stop coverage. As such, you get the inevitable platitudes like "we all hope everyone gets out of there," and "This is really something to watch," and "The firefighters really have their work cut out for them."
Then there are the empty and sometimes amusing cliches such as this I just heard as I was writing this: " A double edge sword that cuts both ways."
But what I do want to complain about is how editorial objectivity seems to get pre-empted along with regular programming. In the service of filling time with meaningless talking, so often TV news people turn to their own opinions and words that imply subjectivity "unfortunately" "terrible" "horrible" "devastating." As someone who has covered many fires first hand, I understand they often cause strong feelings. But their jobs is to deliver reports, not reviews, nor lecture people about what they should and should not do, which I find offensive coming from a talking head. We should be getting the facts, not their insincere sympathy.
Dear Mariel,
I'm so happy finally to have an issue with you. Been way too much in agreement.
Yes, I agree the cliches are annoying--probably unavoidable given the amount of coverage and talking-heads abhoring a vacuum as much as nature abhors a vaccum. The editorial expressions in the form of adjectives, I don't mind so much, if they are, in fact, moved by the horror of it. I agree that if the sympathy is feigned, they should knock it off.
When I consider great moments in broadcasting, for me they have been when the talking heads became human. The narrator of the Hindenberg disaster crying "Oh, the humanity." Walter Cronkeit tearing up at the death of JFK. And our own great Jess Marlow choking up when reporting the death of former U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers in the crash of the NBC helicopter. A little unrehearsed humanity is okay by me.
What I truly object to in the TV coverage is not ismply the "if it bleeds it leads" but coverage by assessed value. More buildings have burned, more homes destroyed and more people truly homeless in our northern fires than in Malibu. Rich people will probably not be sleeping in the refugee center in Malibu. The TV news finds it more interesting to watch multi-million dollar mansions burn than mere quarter million homes. I suppose there is a certain schadefreude when the wealthy have problems the same as we mere mortals do.
Jonathan