Broadcast news

I've always had a problem with broadcast news. Maybe it's the print journalist in me, but there are a few things that just drive me nuts. The smallest but most annoying is when they start the broadcast by explaining that Joe Blow isn't the anchor tonight and that he'll be back Monday. How self-important do they think they are that my world is disrupted because some other talking head is reading the AP newswire to me? But my biggest beef is with the news updates during the commercial breaks. Like tonight, they announced "Two teens shot dead. Learn the shocking details at 7:00." You know what, that's a commercial, not a news brief. It provides no real information at all. I remember when I was in high school and was babysitting my little sister on New Years so my parents could go to a party and they come on during a break to announce "deadly car wreck ... news at 10." Sensationalism, nothing more. They might as well be a tabloid at that point. Where? How many cars involved? It's only New Years. It's not like half of everyone's loved ones are on the road. Ugh! I could go on and on, but I won't.