The Problem with All-News Stations

Most people have observed this for years - there is an inherent problem with all-news stations, be they TV or radio... there really is very little newsworthy over the course of 24 hours, so everything becomes a "crisis" to give it an air of legitimacy.

This morning, while driving to work in Detroit, I listened to the all-news station for the traffic update. It was early in the morning and there was a little bit of freezing rain. No biggie for Michigan in early March. In fact, this winter hasn't been a biggie... this winter has been very mild. It barely snowed in time to give us a white Christmas. The temperatures have been warm (for winter) through January and February and I spent more time looking at grass instead of snow.

Anyways, this morning we had a little freezing rain, and it is supposed to snow from 1" - 3" by the end of the day. Again, Michigan in March. Not a big deal.

But to listen to the all-news station, you'd think we were back in the Cold War and the Soviets were invading. Crisis Crisis Crisis. "Please, stay inside if you can... this is a winter survival Thursday morning with dangerous weather... we may have dangerous amounts of snow in the afternoon..." Dangerous amounts? Three inches? In Michigan? In March?

They had their roving reporters driving around Metro Detroit, reporting on the driving conditions. "Can you hear the hail?" - holds the cell phone to the window - "that is pea-sized hail falling. Very dangerous driving conditions."

"I am driving by the construction on I-75 near 14 Mile... if there is any good thing about this weather, it will force drivers to slow their dangerous speeds down while going through this construction." No, Chuckles, something else is slowing their speed down - the freeway is down to one lane. Half of Southeastern Michigan going through that one lane in a three hour period. How can you experience "dangerous speeds" when the major north-south artery is down to one lane?

Crisis, whether real or generated, is the staple of this kind of "news" organizations. I'm glad there are so many ads, or we'd really get a dose of "crisis" with every story.

News , News and Politics