The “man on the street” is an idiot
I don’t watch the local nightly news. It’s a poor way to find out what’s going on: the stories are superficial, the program is interrupted by commercial breaks, and it’s a completely non-interactive medium.
But the worst part about the nightly news is the obligatory “man on the street” interview. This is a classic–and seemingly mandatory–component of any story with a local focus (and some with a national focus–that can make for even dumber commentary).
Consider the following story about luggage falling from a plane at Midway airport. The plane took off, the cargo doors weren’t secured, and two bags fell out. CBS2 Chicago saw fit to interview several passengers (maybe relevant) and area residents (not insightful) about the situation. Here’s Idiot #1, a passenger:
“That’s scary. It should be more secured, more secured than that. Shouldn’t nothing be flying off the plane. Shouldn’t be no doors open. Everything should be secure,” Delta passenger Phyllis Abram said.
“Shouldn’t nothing be flying off the plane?” Ya think?! This is commentary worthy of publication?! How about Idiot #1, an area resident:
“You’d be driving by and luggage hits you… that would be real crazy,” area resident Martin Vasquez said.
Thanks, Martin. Very insightful.
Simply put, the local news team needs to stop talking to the locals.
October 24th, 2007 at 8:34 am
You crack me up. I really love your blog.
October 31st, 2007 at 1:53 am
I don’t like the local news either, but today when it came on I was mildly interested in the report since an hour earlier we experienced a moderate (5.6) earthquake.
They could have said just about anything and it would have interested me, but all they could come up with was a stupid interview with a girl in San Francisco saying the floor of the restaurant shook a little. Come on. SF is like 75 miles from the epicenter of this quake. At least they could have interviewed someone from the grocery store in San Jose where jars fell off the shelf and spilled pickles everywhere. Now that would have been interesting.
To make matters worse, this drudgery not only delayed my episode of House, but actually replaced the start of the show! Either they are too cheap to cut commercials, or they’re just incompetent. My goodness.
November 12th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Being on the Planet of the Apes, nothing is really dumber than I expect.
November 13th, 2007 at 11:45 am
http://www.theonion.com/content/amvo/plague_fatality_in_arizona
I like these ‘man on the street’ ‘interviews’.
Totally true like.
November 18th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
totally agree … I hated when they made us do those in j-school … they rarely offer anything of value. complete lazy “journalism”.
December 28th, 2007 at 11:56 am
but why are they both “Idiot #1″?