Rob Rogers fired

[Charley Barker]

PBS . . . .


The Newshour does a good job with most reporting. And Frontline really does the best scratching and digging to uncover the background on difficult stories.


I wonder why PBS affiliates have never produced local news (that I know of)? I know there is a huge profit-margin in it for commercial stations, but I think that PBS might find a good niche with local reporting - especially these days.

[Copanut]

I recall back in the 90's when Bruce Keidan did his series on Johnny Gamage. I believe it was nominated for a Pulitzer, it was excellent. Very little of that being done these days on a local level. Every paper seems to be turning into a USA Today.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Copanut

I recall back in the 90's when Bruce Keidan did his series on Johnny Gamage. I believe it was nominated for a Pulitzer, it was excellent. Very little of that being done these days on a local level. Every paper seems to be turning into a USA Today.

It is only profitable if people can "relate" to it. In other words if it isn't within their echo-chamber scope, they will change the channel.

I can't be the only one that sees this so clearly. I watch people on their phones watching some story and talking about it to the people in their echo-chamber all the time and hear them all agreeing with each other. It actually scares me to be honest because it breeds complete intolerance. This is an obvious byproduct of the new media/smartphone age. I really hope people can see it at some point as the dangerous of intolerance are certainly present and one has to wonder if if will grow to a point of a more violent nature. I don't see it yet on a large scale, but there is no doubt some rumblings.

[Charley Barker]

It is a form of confirmation bias - humans favor opinions that confirm what they already believe. This is the real danger of all social media. But why don't people seek out differences? I think the answer lies partially in the fact that critical thinking is becoming less of a primary goal of our educational system. This is bad not only for democracy but also for innovation in a competitive world. It had been a great asset of the US system. It seems we are moving far too close to more prescriptive systems like China. The rub is that these countries are now recognizing this and making changes that favor critical thinking and experiential learning.

It is also one reason that people in general tend to be so skeptical of science. And how ironic is that when everything in our electronic world is based on physics and chemistry? I know plenty of people who think along the lines of "I know what I need to know based on my life experience and anything counter to that can't be true / must be propaganda / is fake news".

Just for the record, I am way out of my field (not education) on all of this and painting big, broad strokes, but I believe there is something to it.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by Charley Barker

It is a form of confirmation bias - humans favor opinions that confirm what they already believe. .

Definitely agree with that one. Too many follow lock step behind a liberal or conservative belief without considering the other side. Kind of like the morons from the city that think urban living is the only way.

[Geeo]

I find the PBS News Hour to be the most straightforward source for news. No "breaking news," no flash, no fancy graphics, no screaming anchors. Just a slower-paced, thoughtful look at what happened. Longer pieces are in-depth and they are well researched. They ask probing questions, but they are all based on pretty extensive leg work.

PBS doesn't go after ratings (they are very small), so they can take the time to get the story right and not worry about attracting a certain number of eyeballs to sell advertising.

[KimberlyAnn53]

If it was the other way around you wouldn’t care-such hypocrisy with both parties that are so extreme they both scare me.

[Charley Barker]

Originally Posted by Geeo

I find the PBS News Hour to be the most straightforward source for news. No "breaking news," no flash, no fancy graphics, no screaming anchors. Just a slower-paced, thoughtful look at what happened. Longer pieces are in-depth and they are well researched. They ask probing questions, but they are all based on pretty extensive leg work.

PBS doesn't go after ratings (they are very small), so they can take the time to get the story right and not worry about attracting a certain number of eyeballs to sell advertising.

Agreed. I would love to see a half hour local news program on PBS. Time has come.