bashing fox 4 news

Not that it's hard to find reason to criticize WDAF-TV, but I really didn't understand just how horrible the reporting is. Two recent Fox 4 stories were riddled with errors. I have two people close to me who knew the real facts involved. The inaccuracies in both these stories are so numerous that there is no element of news left. It's storytelling. It's filling news space—of which Fox 4 has a lot to fill.

And I know that the Fox 4 team is working on a tight budget. And I know that they have to spit out news lightning fast. But really, people, you need to actually check your facts. Just because one kid tells you something doesn't make it news. Did you ask anyone else what happened? Did you contact the company for an official response? Did you actually see the police report or talk to the government official? Did you bother to recheck your facts before running an update news piece. No? No. And it's the viewers who are being misled.

This morning I caught a piece where a Fox 4 reporter was standing outside some education building in Kansas City, Mo. Now this "on location" shoot gives the report an air of more credibility to the TV audience, it has nothing to do with her gathering the facts of the story. She had no actual reason to be standing there. She hadn't interviewed anyone on the school board about the new superintendent. She hadn't gone there to receive any information first hand. The news she reported came from no work on her part, or on the part of Fox 4. She merely reported "according to The Kansas City Star."

On the TV show, "How I Met Your Mother," there's a scene where two of the characters make fun of a morning show host who actually reads the morning paper to his audience. Maybe Fox 4 should actually think of doing this. Doing so may put their audience to sleep, but at least the fiction can return to its proper home: the stuff of dreams and nightmares.