Television news is, sadly, ripe for parody. Jon Stewart makes a living making fun of us. Thank goodness he finds government officials even more fun to make fun of, or TV news people would get more face-time on The Daily Show.
It's easy to laugh at The Daily Show. He makes fun of NETWORK news people. We here in LOCAL news could never be that lame.
Could we?
An Atlanta blogger is holding local TV news accountable with his blog "Live Apartment Fire". I've never met Doug Richards, the author, but he has a reputation as a great guy and fabulous writer. He worked at WAGA for years. Why is his blog named "Live Apartment Fire"? I'll lift the explanation from his blog:
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"Live Apartment Fire" refers to the brightest, most incendiary cliché in Atlanta TV news. When an apartment catches fire -- especially close to news time -- it doesn't matter what good work a reporter has developed during the day. Nor does it matter if nobody is injured by the fire. The apartment fire will be treated like Armageddon, especially if the flames can be broadcast live during a newscast.
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Wow! One look at that, and I knew I would become a regular reader of his stuff. It's fun -- even if sometimes it's painful. He doesn't pull his punches, and my guess is, lots of local TV news folks read his blog. Now that you know, you can read it, too! Check it out at
liveapartmentfire.wordpress.com.
