KSFY News: Tabloids Have Nothing On You

Anybody who has regularly read this blog knows that I’ve been pretty hard on the local news channels (with reason). Yet there’s one station that I’ve rarely take the time to bitch and moan.
Obviously, I’m talking about KSFY. For the most part, I’ve never really been upset with them. I’ve always considered Phil Schreck to be the preeminent weather personality in the area, and outside of the silly “Thor Challenge”, their sports has always been top-notch. Well, at least you can count on them actually giving the scores.
As for their news coverage, while they weren’t outstanding they rarely offended me…which in this town is saying something. I always believed that if their parent company had put some cash behind them they could actually challenge KELO.
Well, if there’s any justice we won’t have to worry about them challenging anybody. For quite some time, I had heard some rumblings from former employees about a new regime but had never really taken the time to check it out. Trust me, there’s enough unintentional humor on KELO and KDLT to get me through each day.
Last Friday, though, I received a phone call that I just had to check out their 10 o’clock newscast. Oh, and to also have my recording system set up, as there was going to be a feature people would talk about for at least a few days.
A few minutes after the broadcast commenced, I felt a sickening feeling in my stomach. Surely this has to be a joke. “Wheel of Justice”? WTF? And this is part of an insipid pledge to “get tough on crime”? Um, isn’t that the police’s job? Isn’t the role of the news to report on crime?
This 4 ½ minute segment may have been the “cringiest” thing I’ve ever witnessed. Forget about the cable access production values. Forget about the cheesy musical backing track in the background. Definitely forget about the uncomfortable interview with a police spokesman at the beginning of the segment.
Like all porn, you have to focus on the money shot. They actually had a wheel with names and faces of people wanted for dangerous crimes such as failure to appear and failure to pay child support. They spun it and showed a mug shot of the “winner”, along with a bio that made it sound like the person in question had gunned down an entire farm town.
Is this really what we desire and/or expect from local TV news? How can anybody involved with this farce show their faces in public? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since seemingly every story they aired that night (and from what I’ve been told every night) is accompanied by over-the-top bombastic “Breaking News” graphics. They’ve become a cross between TMZ, Fox News, and Maury Povitch. Please, I beg you. Just stop it. Give us the news, and leave the tabloid-ish delivery in the gutter where it belongs.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Maybe some good citizens should build a ‘wheel of paparazzi’, and put it in front of the KSFY office building. These local thin-skinned news channels aren’t going to want a public imagine of being TV rating whores while the economy goes down and crime goes up. Isn’t KSFY part of the ABC paparazzi family? That would explain a lot.
John Thune send me a letter Tuesday claiming there’s a Tom Daschle conspiracy to unseat Thune’s reelection bid. Ironically, I turned on the TV Wednesday morning to find out that Obama wants Daschle as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Assuming Thune is continuing to tout his conspiracy claim, the connection here is that Daschle will expose all the public health injustices in the United States, and thus make Thune and the Republicans look like Scrooge. Poor John.
Anonymous said…
After listening to the Events Center Task Force lap dogs, I'm starting to feel compelled to defend the opposition view to not build a new events center. Terry Wooster is getting to cheeky on this subject. What entertainment acts would fill an events center the size of the Fargo Dome? None of the arena rock bands can fill arenas anymore (for those that're left). The new rock bands aren’t that well known or popular enough to draw large crowds. There’s not enough hip hop fans in Sioux Falls to fill a new arena, so that leaves it totally up to the country western artists to fill a new events center year round. Are the C/W fans that devoted to buying tickets each month that they’d consistently pack an events center? Is league sports in Sioux Falls have that much of a following? The Arena currently doesn’t get to maximum capacity for any league games, so how can anyone justify four times the number as an expectation? And how do you get the home bodies to leave their warm homes after 6pm in this town? The events task farce members stated on Channel 16 they’d welcome a counter perspective if anyone wanted to attend their meetings. Sounds like a good opportunity for Mr. Scott.

Kurt
Anonymous said…
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Anonymous said…
KSFY has stooped to a new low, tonight they have a story that they continue to tease today, "REPO RIDE". Where "vultures" or investors take a bus and go buy foreclosed homes.
The tease keeps showing someone home and people on a bus. Haven't these homeowners been humilated enough. Now KSFY will be showing there home on television.
Anonymous said…
Just trying to find the KSFY address posted on a previous comment.

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