Would you watch "positive" news programs?

[radcen]

Would you watch "positive" news programs? (ETA: The entire program, not just segments)

People always seem to clamor for this. Yet, over my lifetime I have seen a couple attempts by local tv stations to do this, and all have failed miserably. I just saw a local tv station on Facebook asking, "What news stories should we feature today?", and several people said they wanted all positive stuff.

I am going to submit that this is an area where people think they know what they want, but really don't. Just as people think and say they want healthy choices from McDonald's, they still order burgers and fries and the healthy choices fail. Same here. People think and say they want positive news, but then won't watch it.

I won't pretend. I will freely admit that I do not watch the news for "good" news. I want what I call "hard news". Hard news can be good, such as when a kidnap victim is found safe, but it's usually not. I do appreciate a positive "feel good" story mixed in, absolutely, but honestly I wouldn't even bother to tune in if that's all the program was.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

Would you watch "positive" news programs?

People always seem to clamor for this. Yet, over my lifetime I have seen a couple attempts by local tv stations to do this, and all have failed miserably. I just saw a local tv station on Facebook asking, "What news stories should we feature today?", and several people said they wanted all positive stuff.

I am going to submit that this is an area where people think they know what they want, but really don't. Just as people think and say they want healthy choices from McDonald's, they still order burger and fries and the healthy choices fail. Same here. People think and say they want positive news, but then won't watch it.

I won't pretend. I will freely admit that I do not watch the news for "good" news. I want what I call "hard news". Hard news can be good, such as when a kidnap victim is found safe, but it's usually not. I do appreciate a positive "feel good" story mixed in, absolutely, but honestly I wouldn't even bother to tune in if that's all the program was.

I don't get your point - several news stories in my area are positive. Like: Kartwheels for Kali

I think people just need to pay more attention to news in their local areas, and consider just what is *good news*

Rebuilding after a natural disaster.
Communities renovating / doing improvements.
Local charities and fund raisers.
Health efforts (like the one I linked to) - etc
___ of the Month or ___ or the year (like teacher - etc)
Even some political stories

All good news.

 

[MaggieD]

Would you watch "positive" news programs?

People always seem to clamor for this. Yet, over my lifetime I have seen a couple attempts by local tv stations to do this, and all have failed miserably. I just saw a local tv station on Facebook asking, "What news stories should we feature today?", and several people said they wanted all positive stuff.

I am going to submit that this is an area where people think they know what they want, but really don't. Just as people think and say they want healthy choices from McDonald's, they still order burger and fries and the healthy choices fail. Same here. People think and say they want positive news, but then won't watch it.

I won't pretend. I will freely admit that I do not watch the news for "good" news. I want what I call "hard news". Hard news can be good, such as when a kidnap victim is found safe, but it's usually not. I do appreciate a positive "feel good" story mixed in, absolutely, but honestly I wouldn't even bother to tune in if that's all the program was.

Here's what I think: I think every news show should have a segment that features positive news. As an adjunct to the normal news, I think it'd be watched by more people than a whole feel-good thirty minutes.

 

[Wiseone]

I'd watch an honest news program, that delivered good information about important stories and events that left the viewer feeling not only more informed but also knowledgeable that there's a whole lot more important information out there that just couldn't fit into a single news program.

Most "news" is about making its viewers feel smug and self-righteous in their opinion without challenging them to think, Fox News is the most obvious example of that.

 

[CanadaJohn]

Personally, I wouldn't mind if the news simply got back to actually reporting and leave the commentary and opinion pieces to the talking heads. Too often, in my view, you have a news anchor interacting with a "reporter" and asking him/her their opinion on something or their take on the situation or what they think will happen next. The lines between true reporting and promoting a position have been so blurred that it makes much of news programming a joke.

 

[Deuce]

Here's what I think: I think every news show should have a segment that features positive news. As an adjunct to the normal news, I think it'd be watched by more people than a whole feel-good thirty minutes.

Reality proves otherwise. Ratings don't lie.

 

[radcen]

Here's what I think: I think every news show should have a segment that features positive news. As an adjunct to the normal news, I think it'd be watched by more people than a whole feel-good thirty minutes.

Agreed. I actually do like something positive within the news program. I like when our local stations have a "Student of the Week", or when a national broadcast profiles a person for making a positive difference in their community. But, honestly, I wouldn't tune in if the entire 30 minutes were that.

 

[Deuce]

I'd watch an honest news program, that delivered good information about important stories and events that left the viewer feeling not only more informed but also knowledgeable that there's a whole lot more important information out there that just couldn't fit into a single news program.

Most "news" is about making its viewers feel smug and self-righteous in their opinion without challenging them to think, Fox News is the most obvious example of that.

Personally, I wouldn't mind if the news simply got back to actually reporting and leave the commentary and opinion pieces to the talking heads. Too often, in my view, you have a news anchor interacting with a "reporter" and asking him/her their opinion on something or their take on the situation or what they think will happen next. The lines between true reporting and promoting a position have been so blurred that it makes much of news programming a joke.

We gave up real reporting when we stopped watching it in favor of "I'm Right News Hour."

 

[Aunt Spiker]

Agreed. I actually do like something positive within the news program. I like when our local stations have a "Student of the Week", or when a national broadcast profiles a person for making a positive difference in their community. But, honestly, I wouldn't tune in if the entire 30 minutes were that.

I've heard a lot of 'aren't there more positive things to talk about?' but I don't recall any of those people referring to wanting a 'purely positive news' - and often, news isn't either positive or negative, it just is. Stuff happens, they report. People seem to be labored down with the negative when it's war and murder.

 

[Fisher]

News has to be relevant. Since all things relevant are not "positive" it would not be possible to have a legitimate news show that is all positive. That said, what I think it noticeably lacking from news is giving opposing viewpoints equal time to the slant the reporter wants to take on a great many stories. That feeds people not wanting to deal with the media at all because of their very agenda-oriented editing, sound-biting, and disposition, so reporters are increasingly destroying the journalistic integrity of the industry just to try to get 1 more viewer in their race to the bottom.

 

[AngryOldGuy]

I'd watch an honest news program

Personally, I wouldn't mind if the news simply got back to actually reporting

I'd pay some attention to a news venue that wasn't straight up in your face propaganda, As for 'watching' I haven't had
one of those things called TV for over a decade now so it would have to be delivered via the web. I'm fully converted to the
millennial generation short attention theatre ADD/ADHD vidiot mode of information interface. I'm sure you old folks recall back
in the 20th century watching the national news and then your local news. That is all over now.

Looking back when I was a child at the kitchen table eating dinner watching Walter Cronkite tell us during the Tet Offensive
"this war is lost" was all just total liberal media bias

 

[DaveFagan]

Personally, I wouldn't mind if the news simply got back to actually reporting and leave the commentary and opinion pieces to the talking heads. Too often, in my view, you have a news anchor interacting with a "reporter" and asking him/her their opinion on something or their take on the situation or what they think will happen next. The lines between true reporting and promoting a position have been so blurred that it makes much of news programming a joke.

I expect true and objective news reporting or the reporting agency should not label itself as a News Organization. Most in our time are abject failures. We are subject to bought and paid for news by innumerable vested interests that distort, twist, adjust, massage news to fit the scenarios or agendas of the sponsors. News organizations have also suffered serious infiltration and subversion by Intelligence Agencies adjusting realities. Screw 'em all. Schools should teach a mandatory course teaching "how to determine unbiased news sources."

 

[AngryOldGuy]

Schools should teach a mandatory course teaching "how to determine unbiased news sources."

The prerequisite for that course would be Logical Thinking 101 :tongue4:

So much of what they spew out, if yer brain is even halfway engaged, leaves you saying to yourself: What a Crock!
News Programs are downright insulting !

 

[Cephus]

Nope, I wouldn't watch it, but then again, I never watch network news programs anyhow because they're not really news, they're ratings and commercial machines. I don't think that the news ought to be commercialized. I think it ought to be completely commercial free and bias free, it ought to just tell you what's going on and be done with it. However, pretty much every news show promotes sensationalistic reporting. If it bleeds, it leads. That's not how it used to be, that's not how it ought to be now.

 

[AngryOldGuy]

hah cephus! the CIA should be made to broadcast an unfiltered weekly news hour about the goings on in the world to the public.
After all we are paying their paychecks?

 

[Helix]

i'd watch it sometimes. i enjoy the feature kind of stuff if it's interesting. NBC Nightly usually devotes the last couple segments to stories like that.

 

[Wiseone]

I'd pay some attention to a news venue that wasn't straight up in your face propaganda, As for 'watching' I haven't had
one of those things called TV for over a decade now so it would have to be delivered via the web. I'm fully converted to the
millennial generation short attention theatre ADD/ADHD vidiot mode of information interface. I'm sure you old folks recall back
in the 20th century watching the national news and then your local news. That is all over now.

Looking back when I was a child at the kitchen table eating dinner watching Walter Cronkite tell us during the Tet Offensive
"this war is lost" was all just total liberal media bias

The war was eventually lost though, although not specifically for the strictly military results of the Tet Offensive.

 

[Cephus]

hah cephus! the CIA should be made to broadcast an unfiltered weekly news hour about the goings on in the world to the public.
After all we are paying their paychecks?

Nope, the rest of the network programming is. That's how it used to be, TV networks had to show certain types of programming at certain times as a consequence of their FCC license. It was a public service.

 

[AngryOldGuy]

My intent was to show an example of clear media bias (by the 'most trusted man in America')
back in the day news commentators would have to preface their 'editorials' with some kinda
excuse as: 'in the opinion of this journalist' crap

hah a news broadcast devoted solely to good news?
How about one that is just something vaguely resembling the truth?
I'd settle for that.

 

[AngryOldGuy]

consequence of their FCC license. It was a public service.

how'd that sayin' go?
a free press is vital to democracy

or some such balderdash

 

[NoC_T]

Would you watch "positive" news programs? (ETA: The entire program, not just segments)

People always seem to clamor for this. Yet, over my lifetime I have seen a couple attempts by local tv stations to do this, and all have failed miserably. I just saw a local tv station on Facebook asking, "What news stories should we feature today?", and several people said they wanted all positive stuff.

I am going to submit that this is an area where people think they know what they want, but really don't. Just as people think and say they want healthy choices from McDonald's, they still order burgers and fries and the healthy choices fail. Same here. People think and say they want positive news, but then won't watch it.

I won't pretend. I will freely admit that I do not watch the news for "good" news. I want what I call "hard news". Hard news can be good, such as when a kidnap victim is found safe, but it's usually not. I do appreciate a positive "feel good" story mixed in, absolutely, but honestly I wouldn't even bother to tune in if that's all the program was.

If it's all sentimental candy floss, people won't have anyone to make them feel better about themselves. By and large, this only occurs where someone else is suffering. Or dead. The very reason comedy is always at someone's expense. The same reason people get off on watching others endure all manner of atrocities on the big screen. If it's all sweetness and light, the audience runs the risk of being worse off by comparison. A prospect not so lightly borne.

Throw in the odd cat and fireman squib for the sake of appearances, but no more, lest a sunny smile take centre stage and the blood curdling scream be muted.

 

[AngryOldGuy]

tEll you whut
The recent spate of real life vids coming out of Syria
are too much for me to watch

funny how years and years of pretend movie violence hasn't inured me to the real thing

 

[Bob N]

I want the news to be the news. If it's good so be it; if it's not so be it.

 

[DaveFagan]

hah cephus! the CIA should be made to broadcast an unfiltered weekly news hour about the goings on in the world to the public.
After all we are paying their paychecks?

They're already in that position but they are delivering "filtered" news. They are a large part of the problem. You do know the black budget is $57 Billion.

 

[ashurbanipal]

I'd watch it about as much as I would watch any other news...which is to say, very little.