And now, the news...

The news doesn't have much news in it any more.

Maybe I'm a little young to be a curmudgeon, but our local news seems to have devolved into the "Wreck/Fire/Shooting of the Day." It's kind of like eating a candy bar for dinner. A quick fix, but it doesn't stick with you. (Unless it's a Butterfinger, maybe...I digress.)

As a wet-behind-the-ears journalist, first in print, and eventually in television and radio as well, I evolved from being an ambulance chaser who slept with a police scanner by the bed (I had developed the strange ability to filter out the chatter and awaken only when a code was called for an accident with injuries, the coroner, or the fire department). I became someone who measured the value of a story by how many people would be affected or whether there was some broad benefit to putting those words to print or saying them on the air. Unfortunately, my job occasionally still involved reporting on the less savory side of life, but by and large those measuring sticks made most stories worth my while in the latter part of my days as a reporter. (Although admittedly, I occasionally indulged my funny bone by writing about some of the more quirky things I observed.)

Since changing career paths (I now work in public relations), it's often hard for me to watch the local news. I still have friends in the business, and I respect them and what they do, but it seems the overall direction is a bit misguided. They argue that focus groups and viewer surveys and ratings books consistently indicate that we want to know about "breaking news," that is, if something is immediately happening, and we want to know about our personal safety and whether any crime or accidents have occurred. I admit those points have legs. But that doesn't mean I want to see a live shot of a reporter standing in front of a smoldering house that burned the night before, where no other homes were damaged and everyone made it out alive, or that the lead story should be an accident with an injured driver, when traffic wasn't really affected, and there were no unusual circumstances or criminal acts involved. And if Miss America is in trouble, well, I feel for her, but it's not worth a five-minute block of news, covering every angle of her angst. We're being fed "shock value" stories, and many of those are weak at best. It's not that much of it is not worth reporting--although an argument could be made there. It's just that those stories are not worth the emphasis being placed on them via station resources and my time spent watching them--at least until I can get my fingers on the remote.

What happened to stories that affect me and my family in tangible ways? What about our schools--and I don't mean whether somebody wrote a hit list, but what is going on in the classrooms? It doesn't have to be dull storytelling. In the right hands, it can be compelling. What about the faith community? Millions of us go to church or synagogue or some other house of worship each week. These are an important force in our society. What about health? What about finances--stories that help us have a healthier bottom line? What about our neighbors--and not those who are arrested, but those who are hungry? Or feeding the hungry? Or helping adults who never learned to read? What things has our state government done to affect how we live, work, play and pay?

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is an amazing place. There's more in it than the latest fender-bender or political fight or stabbing du jour.

Tell me about it.