Former CBS Correspondent Ed Rabel blasts local TV News

Here is a link to Ed Rabel's op-ed column criticizing... no, blasting ... local TV news. I worked with Ed back in the 1970s when I was an Associate Producer and Assignment Editor/Report with CBS News. Ed was based out of the Atlanta Bureau and regularly appeared on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.

http://www.wvgazette.com/Opinion/OpE...s/201303270068

I've often said that local TV news covers police stories because the reporters and editors know that the object is to catch the bad guy. And local TV news covers fires because they know that the object is to put the fire out.

But I also agree that local TV news is out of touch with the needs of the audience -- as well as the demographics of the audience. Who watches TV news? Primarily older viewers but how often do you see stories that pertain to older viewers? Seen many stories about pensions, social security, medicare, senior care, senior housing, senior fashions, senior vacations lately? Seen any seniors on the air lately?

I would say it's a pretty fair estimate that most of today's young crop of reporters are clueless about what Medicare Part B is, or even how to manage a defined pension benefit these days.

I've often criticized news operations for not covering education, daily finance, health stories.

Here in Southern California it seems that most of the stories that appear on the evening newscasts all happen within a ten mile radius of downtown Los Angeles and the audience living in the rest of Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties are ignored.

I often drive to meet with clients in the Inland Empire, in Temecula and Riverside and Ontario and Montclair and as I drive the freeways and the surface streets (that's how we call local streets here in Southern California) I say to myself -- why isn't there news coverage of these places. There must be news here but these areas are invisible if you watch the local TV news on LA TV.

No wonder local TV news ratings have fallen dramatically. The audience caught on.