C'mon, Dennis. You know how it works. Tell her that the most simple and truthful explanation is what someone at KING once told me: "News is what we say it is."

Obviously, that oversimplifies a complex decision-making process. But why not invite her to sit in on a daily planning meeting? Hey, do a story on it! I'd be curious to see where she'd place "...those excellent things people do to build community, to show caring, to achieve excellence, and those things that are of concern to all of us..." in relation to every other story competing for a slot in the newscast.

I think she'd be surprised to see how tough the choices are. She might be just as surprised by how much "good news" really does make it into the show.

Mike Conklin,
Yakima, WA
(Former ND, KIMA-TV, Yakima; Former reporter: KOMO, KIRO, KCPQ, going back more years than I care to remember)

I worked in the newspaper business over some 25 years, having started with the East Side Journal in Kirkland which my father owned. We defined news as a reflection of our community. It sometimes was bad things, but just as often positive things going on. Kirkland used to be considered a backwater. Look at it today. It is partially what it is because of the postive news we sought out to find the best in our community. Every journalist knows everyone they encounter has a story to tell. It becomes a mater of emphasis and the heart.

While it is easy to sit back and say that as viewers the news only gives us the negative aspects of what is going on around us. The sad truth to me is that if there was noone watching the news or reading newspapers something would have to change. We want to hear what is going on around us and for good reason, and there is a mix of good and bad - the bad seems to be what we remember.

News is money.

Any news that keeps the people watching the whole news program will pass as news.

Most tv broadcast & network companies fund scientific research in the field of commercial audience loyalty and mind stimulation to keep the brain hooked on the television program. Therefore the news is not only news to be reported, it is a mind game to keep you watching the advertisements which rake in millions of dollars for the network and station employees.

Apparently news is the 30 second blurb of generally trivial knowledge or useless info that has been promoted 20 or 30 times longer during the day, teasing all to watch, and without fail, disappointing with which how silly and insignificant it is. 20 minutes of murders, assaults, car commercials, and weather reports that indicate a change later in the week, maybe, or maybe not. Then a sports section that gets outdone because it isn't locally focused enough. Finally, the cute puppy that got saved by the roadside. Of course, the only bit of information added within the story was the puppy's new name, and the intersection it was rescued at - otherwise you knew the whole story from the 6 commercials in primetime.

Yes, it's a rant. I'm not far from the truth, however. It's much better to learn a little more about the stories than to get useless blobs of information. Why not follow every major crime with a plotted map of crimes over the last 60 running days? Show trends. Show me ways to be safe. Show me practical tips. Give me an opinion. Focus on the weather in the near term. Give me sports that have to do with true local teams, not stuff I'll see on SportsCenter anyhow. And if you're going to do a kitten rescued from a tree story, please make it worth watching. If it's a promo'd piece, mandate that it needs to be a 3 minute piece.

News is simply whatever editors select. I have grown tired of listening/watching TV news anchors and reporters blow miniscule items out of proportion by bleating and forcing their voices to make something sound more amazing/important/horrifying/stupendous than it really is. On the mornings when I want to avoid chest pains and stomach aches associated with stress, I tune in to a news show that is usually upbeat and at times downright funny -- CW11's The Daily Buzz. Presentation, as well as content, makes a huge difference.

The only thing worth watching on our local news is the weather, one thing they cant put a liberal slant on. Think about it they would rather put a story on about a lost puppy than the child abducted down the street.

I think that in this day and age that news about the good in humanity "is" notable and unusual. I was actually looking on this site to e-mail a suggestion to have more good news on tv because we already know that bad things happen and we then forget that there are things to be greatful for. I think that just a balance between the bad and the good aren't enough. I think it would be better to have at least a half hour program dedicated to what the good people in the world and in Washington have done and what we are doing. See but I think the more pressing challange would be to be able to find those stories because when something is bad it's reported almost immediatly but who calls with leads about "the good things in life"? As for the comments on this page that seem to suggest that reporting crime and such is what should be reported...I think it's a crying shame to make crime, murder, rape, etc. imfamous rather than make a child with a possitive outlook on life famous when we could be studying a childs influence on the growth of other children for the future. While some of this blog may seem hypocritical...Violance leads to violance and peace brings peace.

Just a couple of comments:
Why do the reporters on the King 5 news broadcast have to be announced as being "alive"?
They look alive to me.
On the National news broadcast it appears that the anchor and the reporters apparently seem to know that we can see them,and telling us that they are alive isn't necessary.
Also it gives the National news more class,while
our local news appears somewhat "provincial".

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With all due respect Dennis, What is YOUR (king5) definition of news?

I have watched King 5 for the last two decades and quite frankly have had just about enough. I was watching the morning broadcast on Kong this morning (10-20-06) and heard the story of a problem with a particular plant in Colorado which apparently has some psychoactive properties (sorry I didn't get the name of the plant). Apparently kids were using it for it's mind altering capabilities and it can have severe consequences on the body, I believe they said even death. The first thing I thought was that we don't really need to be informing people of alternate, not yet illegal, substances. But more importantly, why does the story have to include which part of the plant causes the high, and even worse, how to ingest it?

This pales in comparison to a story that was reported on about a month ago on King 5 though. I remember coming across a thread on the net about "bumping". Bumping is a way to easily defeat cheap locksets commonly found on probably 75% of peoples homes. One night I was relaxing and passively watching the news of the day when King 5 airs a report on "bumping". But the worst part is not only do they explain how it's done, but they actually show a locksmith giving a demonstration of how it is done. I believe they even stated the type of lockset. I know it was a kwikset brand lockset because I am in the construction trade. Could these news items be reported any more irresponsibly? I understand that it could be argued that people need to know these things, but do they really need to know the details that have been reported? The only thing that was left out is how to tell if someone is home or not before you "bump" their lock . Or which website you can go to for the seeds for this wonderful mind altering drug that isn't even illegal.

I already am aware of the gross failures of our media (I'm sure you read the blog postings, i.e., 'What were you doing on 9-11?'). But reporting such as that stated above seems to take it a step further, does it not? Maybe none of that will matter though with where we are headed as a country...
I can still be a concerned one though, can't I?

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