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Large stories dominating television news
When there is a larger story than usual then television news appears to give it coverage that rather exceeds what the new facts demand by including background context and many people's reactions. One sees this now with Fidel Castro's death: he has not run Cuba for years yet not only is his death reported but we even get extended retrospectives on his life after which we relearn the news we already heard (yes, it turns out that he's still dead). This non-news filler has been a longstanding pattern: in my own memory it goes back at least as far as the collapse of the Iron Curtain. In recent years it even includes interviewing reporters who are standing around waiting for something that hasn't even happened yet.
I wonder if any news sources are better or worse for this than others: if there are some who more tightly focus on reporting actual news, instead filling the available time by reporting on a wider selection of stories beyond the current headlines and leaving the viewer to fill in background and commentary separately if they want a lot of it.
I would be quite content for such wider coverage to be afforded by using local reporters from affiliates instead of sending familiar faces around: when NPR would tell us that they need our donations because it costs a lot to send the esteemed Kai Ryssdal to China it seemed to me that they were overlooking the cheaper but no less adequate solution of having him telephone somebody suitably competent who was already there.
I wonder if any news sources are better or worse for this than others: if there are some who more tightly focus on reporting actual news, instead filling the available time by reporting on a wider selection of stories beyond the current headlines and leaving the viewer to fill in background and commentary separately if they want a lot of it.
I would be quite content for such wider coverage to be afforded by using local reporters from affiliates instead of sending familiar faces around: when NPR would tell us that they need our donations because it costs a lot to send the esteemed Kai Ryssdal to China it seemed to me that they were overlooking the cheaper but no less adequate solution of having him telephone somebody suitably competent who was already there.