Now, I know it’s unfair to tar every TV news report with the same brush, particularly as the clip I’m going to show you comes from a Fox News affiliate. But still, it does kind of speak to the medium. I can just see how this went down in the newsroom:
Reporter: There’s this great story about a bear terrorizing this lady.
Producer: Can you get pictures of the bear? I don’t want a god-damned story about a bear without video of a frickin’ bear.
Reporter: No problem. I’m sure we’ll be able to get pictures.
Producer: Okay. If you’re going to waste the whole afternoon with a camera crew, we have to have pictures.
Reporter: Don’t worry. There will be a bear in the story.
You can find it here if the embed thingy doesn’t work. At least the report finally answers the question: “does a bear scat in the woods?”
Brilliant! Or at least brilliantly entertaining.
You know, if more TV news were like that, maybe I’d watch it.
My favourite part is when the “animate” the cutout bear.