News Porn

This afternoon, as I got out of bed, MSNBC, CNN Headline News and Fox were all carrying live helicopter coverage of a car chase on I-5 north of Los Angeles. I like to call this kind of stuff ‘news porn.’

The driver of the 1997 Saturn was wanted for suspicion of DUI (or so said the on-screen graphics). The car was doing the speed limit and staying within the lines on the Interstate.

I have no idea how this story ended. Time took its toll and I had to leave.

The story itself is so unimportant that there’s no real need to update America on what transpired. Which, of course begs the question – why cover it at all?

It all comes down to the definition of news. News used to mainly be about concepts and ideas. It is now much more event and celebrity oriented.

Events make for more compelling than nearly anything else… at least while the event’s in progress. Concepts are much more difficult a story to put on TV.

Events and celebrities are ‘low hanging fruit’ when you’re running a newsroom… even one that’s covering the entire nation.

I am sure this unimportant story was a much bigger draw than anything else these three networks could have chosen to run. It will be interesting to see how CNN’s main channel (running CNN International at this time) did in the ratings versus the other three.

I’ll admit, I couldn’t turn away.

How can I chastise these networks for what they ran when it was my own viewing choice? It’s easy to be critical. It’s much more difficult to be angry while they’re being practical.


Here’s how the story was reported in the one (and only one) result I got from Google news.

Woman Leads Police On Car Chase Through SCV

Written by Jon Dell

Friday, 06 July 2007

DUI suspect evades LAPD, makes way through Santa Clarita

Woman Leads Police On Car Chase Through SCV

DUI suspect evades LAPD, makes way through Santa Clarita

A car was seen swerving and driving erratically this morning in the San Fernando Valley off of the 118 freeway near Hayvenhurst Blvd.

When the LAPD attempted to pull the car over, the driver made a run for it and a car chase ensued.

The chasing officers tried to subdue the car near Pacoima, conducting a pit maneuver which is meant to guide the car into a spin, allowing police time to maneuver in and block the vehicle from continuing further.

The plan was executed, however the woman driving managed to regain control of her car and continue on through Santa Clarita on the I-5.

LAPD was still in pursuit, and according to Lt. Walker of the Santa Clarita Sheriff

2 thoughts on “News Porn”

  1. geoff- couldnt agree with you more. the chase was on a tv in our lobby and I made a comment to a co-worker ‘how is this news?’. he told me ‘true, but we are the suckers watching it.’

    one more thing- why do police chases on TV only happen in California?

  2. The reason most of the car chases are on the air in Southern CA area is that the TV and Radio stations have nothing else, IMHO, that is particularly newsworthy. Besides, it’s like watching NASCAR–it’s not for the chase (race) but the crashes…

    Morbid curiosity, plus way too much ‘soft news’ gets you the ‘car chase of the day’ complete with breathless commentary and a lot of live shots of a pointless event.

    I guess it sells, but If I want to watch pointless car chases, there are programs on cable that make a living at it, like ‘Cops’ or whatever.

    The real irritating stuff in Southern CA is the morning news shows on the local LA stations–talk about ‘sappy’ news stories. And lets not forget the live coverage of a certain spoiled rich brat’s run-in with the law.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *