franka@tekcad.UUCP (11/18/83)
#R:sjuvax:-14500:tekcad:5300003:000:1674
tekcad!franka Nov 18 09:56:00 1983
I can't believe that all of this contraversy is going on about some
network piece of news-garbage. The fact is, OVERNIGHT suffered from the same
problem that all the major network news programs suffer from. Trying to cover
too much in too little time. By the time each hour is over, you have to try
to:
1) Cover the headlines (including about 3 minutes on your really
important stories)
2) Get in the weather
3) Add in a couple of cutesy features
and 4) Leave time for commercials
Lets face it, network news is not the height of great reporting.
If you want a really dependable (and pretty ballanced) source of
news, try the MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour. They have a 10 minute segment at
the front of the show giving headlines and use the remainder of the show
to cover at most three stories. This gives ~15 minutes each for the three
stories involved (more if they cover fewer stories and this is an eternity
in TV time) and don't throw in cutesy features about the latest diet fad
or about a one-hundred year old man who has been discovered in Redneck,
Tenn. and still thinks that Eisenhower is president.
And if you really want a good source of information, try newspapers!
I am, of course, assuming that you all still remember how to read on a sur-
face that isn't glass. If you can get The New York Times, The Washington Post,
The Christian Science Monitor, and The National Enquirer (this last one thrown
in for entertainment value), you have a pretty good idea of what is going on
out there.
From the truly menacing,
/- -\ but usually underestimated,
<-> Frank Adrian
(tektronix!tekcad!franka)