breaking news...

I try not to make a habit of watching the news. I often find the news to be depressing and/or irrelevant (there will likely be another blog on this topic, as it's a topic to itself). As many of you know, I was home from work all this week due to my daughter's birth (she's 1 week old today!). I found myself watching the "Channel 7 News at Noon" while eating my lunch on Thursday (1.27). The newscast began with "Breaking News" on the screen. I cannot lie, this grabbed my attention. But what followed was hyped way too much in my opinion. Let me quickly paint the situation for you:

The anchor mentioned that there was a roof collapse at a garage which had two men trapped for 3 hours. They then went to live video from the scene of the collapse from Sky 7 (their chopper). Next, the anchor kicked it out to a live reporter on the scene. They told the whole story of the problem and resolution. An intriguing story no doubt. Then they kicked it to another reporter on the other side of the garage. That reporter basically retold the story. You'll never guess what happened next...that's right, they went to a third reporter on the scene. Three reporters, an anchor and a crew on Sky 7 all telling the same story.

It was an interesting enough story, but was blown out of proportion. Not to mention, the whole situation was resolved by the time they were reporting it. There were no injuries sustained. Really, it wasn't much of a breaking news story anyway. Must have been a slow news day. Maybe that's why that story was followed up by a man standing on a snow mound in a shopping center parking lot and then a women standing in a snow mound on the side of a busy street. For those who couldn't look out their window, this was probably crucial information I suppose.

Anyway, I think the news will become the boy who cried wolf to me. The graphic "Breaking News" has lost meaning to me.