Perhaps this should be in AIBU thread but I'm finding the way the news is reported is becoming increasingly cringeworthy (or something)

[voluptuagoodshag]

I can't quite put my finger on it but when I watch the news the reports, or rather the way things are reported, make me feel uneasy. For example.
The air crash in the Alps. Dreadful, dreadful news but is it not rather ghoulish to film the grieving families, interview them or those close to them and ask fecking ridiculous questions? Focus on one particular aspect of it (3 were Britons! So! Does that mean the other 147 non Britons are less important?). The town where the schoolchildren came from, the BBC reporter asked a local policewoman if the town will ever recover from this. What sort of question is that to ask at a time like this? It's like milking every possible human emotion out of a situation for our entertainment!

Next, the Jeremy Clarkson thing. This isn't even news. Why is there so much of a furore about it? A man assaults another man in his work and is, of course, sacked. End of!

One Direction. A musician decides to change his career. Hold the front page!!!

The media are responsible for perpetuating the over dramatic, instant fix, quick move on to next story to such an extent it's almost lost all sense of reason.

[sleepyhead]

It's the 24hr news cycle. They need something to fill the air time so they jump on anything new, or go over the same thing over, and over, and over again.

I hate it. I hate the intrusion into others' grief, the ghoulish lingering over every detail.

[alteredbeast]

Watch NightCrawler with Jake Gyllenhall. A good satire of this!

[HerBigChance]

The rolling news mechanism is in itself creating the 'news' as it seeks anything to fill the void.

[Riro]

I agree. I almost sense irritation amongst the news channels when a disaster happens and no-one was able to capture it in amateur video. What can they show now to fill a 20 minute slot with no actual facts to report?

[Riro]

Plus, the tone of voice the news reporters use is bordering on excited.

[HerBigChance]

Yes, the tone is all wrong, and occasionally veers into opinion, rather than delivering fact.

I also cannot bear the two-handed news delivery of regular news bulletins either, it's as though the presenters are playing ping-pong with the narrative. Piss-poor and embarrassing to watch.

[iklboo]

Agree Nightcrawler satirises this perfectly. This sort of crap reporting - along with unbelievably dumbed down & patronising delivery (think Newsround delivered by Orville the duck) is why I stopped watching tv news.

[Seriouslyffs]

TV news is crap. I've caught a lot of what you describe this week and it shocked me; I usually get my news from the radio, newspaper and periodicals.

[Nervo]

I can't watch tv news anymore. I listen to the radio - World Service or BBC Scotland. Whichever is less sensationalist on any given day.

[Seriouslyffs]

^^ what herbig says about rolling news.

[BackforGood]

Totally agree with you, and I'll add (if I may) certain reporters - yes you Nick Robertson and you Robert Preston - who, rather than reporting the news as their job ought to be, seem to think it's their 5mins of fame and that we want them to 'entertain us' with their opinions and thoughts on the matter. Er, no.

[sliceofsoup]

I agree totally.

I don't watch news programmes any more. I read news online, where I can pick and choose what is important to read.

[fourteen]

Agreed. I don't watch the news any more.

We had a school trip flying germanwings home from Spain yesterday.

They had to fight through reporters who were asking the kids how they felt and whether they were nervous - 12 year old kids! They'd been through the stress of having flights cancelled on Tuesday and being "stuck" overnight away from family. The parents were going out of their minds with worry - and some prick is sticking a microphone in their faces flagging up the fact that they were about to take a flight under circumstances which left them very unsure and scared.

Outrageous.

[HumphreyCobbler]

I agree. All this focus on grieving families is awful. There was a photo of a crying woman on the front of the Times yesterday, how is this news? We KNOW there will be grieving families, we should respect their privacy ffs.

[Seriouslyffs]

fourteen that's outrageous. Were they a UK broadcasting company. Definitely complaint worthy.

[fourteen]

I'm not sure who the broadcaster was. It was a scrum, apparently.

[NotCitrus]

I've mostly stopped reading news - most of it is emotion-stirring or speculation. Don't watch it on TV at all, except for Charlie Brooker's News Wipe or HIGNFY.

I feel like that Sickens character who wanted "just the facts". Actually informed comment and speculation would be great too, but Joe Public wittering about how they feel? No thanks.

[NotCitrus]

Dickens character, obviously. Gradgrind? Bloody illiterate autocorrect.

[Pixel]

Plus, the tone of voice the news reporters use is bordering on excited.

I agree. I rarely watch the news on tv but I was visiting a friend today and she had it on when I got there. There was a female reporter (don't know who she was but she was in a studio) doing a piece on the terrible plane crash and you'd have thought it was a humourous story of a kitten up a tree or something. I actually commented to my friend that the reporter didn't have to look so pleased while she was reading out the gory details.

[JillyR2015]

I read the FT. Try that. Works for many women.

[voluptuagoodshag]

A reporter once told me that "if it bleeds, it leads" so basically the gorier the details the bigger the headline

[silveroldie2]

I quite agree about the tv intruding on those poor families. It's disgraceful.

I also don't understand why they cover issues that have zero relevance to 99.9% of those watching. I was flicking through channels the other morning and came across Pick TV showing Sky's early morning news with Eamonn Andrews.

There was a banner shooting across the screen saying BREAKING NEWS - over and over, also repeated at the bottom of the screen. I wondered what had happened, then read the banner - it said something like 'Angelina Jolie has ovaries removed because there may be an indication of cancer'.

Since when did a woman having her ovaries removed become so newsworthy that it was the main banner headline? It's complete madness and I'm pleased I don't pay scummy Murdoch for Sky.

[myredcardigan]

It's a bloody disgrace. Leave those poor people alone. Likewise, why show us over and over the moment where two helicopters crash midair killing those poor people shooting a reality tv programme? Why snoop in dead passengers belongings? And as you do it comment how maybe you shouldn't but you carry on anyway?
I think it all started with Dunblane then the following year, Diana's death. They stepped over the line in a community paralysed by grief and from then on, everything was game.

[HerBigChance]

The headline quote mentioned by Sinister above are a real problems. It's turning opinions into news.

I also hate the mawkish over-analysis of things, and this 'how the nation is feeling' nonsense. Definitely far far worse since the death of Princess Diana.