fox2 is horrible

[Detroitnerd]

Haha. That is an awesome rant. I think you should give them a prank call or two.

[gopher]

Is it Fox2 that you find horrible or just Fox2 News?

so far just the news. what else is there besides the network programming? i watched again today. technical things were alot smoother. I think they had the interns running the studio on the weekend. I do want to say that Charlie Langton [[sp?) is great. They should make him anchor. you ever get the feeling he does a line a coke before they turn on the camera?

[Lt. Dan Bassett]

Wow, touched a nerve there, eh? My post was directed at the News and the Free Press; both online and print media. Specific examples? Really? On any given day, I can find errors and yes, I do report them though it seems, even my small complaint on this board elicits defensiveness and is not taken as constructive criticism.

What do threads on DY being started from an article in the Detroit News or Free Press have to do with anything?

I am not disrespecting the many competent people who work for either paper; I enjoy M.L. Elrick, Stephen Henderson, and many other people's work. I am just disappointed in the sloppiness that seems to be quite prevalent in the presentation of such work.

@Roq: I suppose it may be a challenge for you to discern the tone of a post on here. My reply to this thread was more of an invitation to deliver specific criticism and a prompt for anyone to participate in the news gathering process by pointing out errors that can be fixed. Not really intended as a defense.
Thruster315, below, pretty much covers the bases on why the news looks terribly sloppy at times.
I appreciate that DY is a place where intelligent conversation can happen. Sometimes, actually quite often, these conversations are prompted by something someone read or saw in the papers. This social discourse is helpful lubrication for citizenship. Important issues for discussion sometimes get launched into consciousness by newspaper reporting. Get it now?
Do you have important Detroit news you have uncovered that we should be discussing?
Drive-by complaints are not constructive. Maybe you see or know something a reporter or editor may have missed. Why keep it to yourself? At the end of the day, without specifics, this is idle shit talk. And if you happen to be a spelling, grammar, fact-check geek you are welcome to apply for a copy editor job in the trenches. See you in the funny papers.

[trotwood]

I was addressing the originator of this post.

Then I beg your pardon.

[MizMotown]

I absolutely cannot stand Fox 2 news. It could honestly be a comedy show with a few good writers.

I do like Charlie though, he'd make a good character on the Fox 2 sitcom.

I know that fire captain. Most stories are stupid. Deena is a trip. What happened to just reporting the news. Now it's a 4 hour circus show.

bleh... enough is enough but nothing going to happen until people seriously quit watching and advertising during that stupidity.

[Bigb23]

As for all the miscues and screw ups we've seen the past few years, stations have a software system called "Ignite", where they have one person at a console that replaced a dozen or more qualified technicians/cameramen of the past.

Robotic cameras, teleprompter, video feeds, graphics - all by one person. There's little room for error. I've been aware of this problem for about a year now. I hope they pay him/her a decent wage.

Read a little bit of their mission statement.



http://www.grassvalley.com/products/automation

[Dr. Emil]

Ignite, Parkervision, etc. They all suck, stifle creativity and cause good, hard working people to lose their jobs. I believe FOX 2 has Ignite and so does WXYZ.

[cramerro]

I have to put in my $0.02 here. I do not watch local news; I peruse online when the mood fits. My news I get online from DFP/DN, and other sources. Every time my wife says 'this guy sucks' or 'what is this garbage' I just say, 'why do you watch that!'

Brief backstory: My blanket 'no local news' policy started when I was living in Lansing in the early 00's... during a flu outbreak or two ago. Lansing has even less news than Detroit, so the phenomenon was even worse there. Every night I'd turn on the TV after work [[this is the channel that had Seinfeld on after the news), just to have on, and they would spend 10 - 20 minutes EVERY NIGHT going over what seemed to be a to-the-dose listing of how many flu vaccines were available at every hospital and clinic in the greater lansing area. Also, a breakdown of deaths, infections, and tummy aches, by state, updated hourly. Sprinkle in a 'who should get the vaccine/what age groups are most prone to flu' and 'how to wash your hands' and it was the dominant feature for what seemed like every night of weeks of news. Let's see how many seniors and parents we can scare into keeping their kid home from school or camping out at the doc's office to get the vaccine NOW. This was before they could add a segment on how the spray, mist, shot, and chewable doses are more or less effective!

I won't hold my criticism just to Fox 2... every station has plenty of rant-worthy material [[see above). Current case-in-point, I was on wxyz.com, and saw the title, "Road Rage Incident Turns Violent." No shit, road rage... violence? Who would have thought. So, I clicked on the link:

http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/...lurs-were-used

... and noticed that the title mentioned anti-gay slurs [[double bonus points for headline writer). Another item to over-dramatize the incident. I read the post, which is just rambling junk, and notice that the 'article' doesn't even mention the gay slurs. Furthermore, this Lafata guy was the instigator... it seems to me based on two paragraphs that he had more than two opportunities to stop the madness and go about living his life. I didn't watch the story on the news, but there was no mention of how road rage is 'bad.' How about even a hokey 'tips to make sure this doesn't happen to you,' like, '1. Don't ever get out of your car to confront two people who chased you down and rammed your car after you told them how to drive.' That's what police are for... drive to the PD if someone rams you. And, you can call in someone's license plate if they are driving dangerously and the MSP or whoever you talk to will issue a BOL.

I'm not saying the 20-year-old suspects shouldn't be locked up, but this is a perfect example of making a 60-90 second bit [[compete with interview and reporter intro-ing the story at the corner where it happened, I'm sure) out of what shouldn't be more than a 5-10 second mention of this guy's road rage incident.

Just reading the first two sentences of the OP rant made my blood boil, but it was a great one.

[rb336]

I have yet to visit anywhere where the local news DOESN'T suck, including, and perhaps especially, NYC where any real talent would jump to the mothership in an instant, so it seems they grab the worst hacks they can find

[Roq]

butthurt reply snipped for space

Yep, I touched a nerve. You are putting WAY too much thought in my offhand comment about how the local news is basically shit; whether it be Det News, Free Press or Fox2 because all of them are riddled with errors that would make a sixth grader blush with shame much of the time. The sites themselves look like they are from 1998 and the content appears to be 60% recycled AP copy and paste.

Your vigorous defense is amusing though; carry on.