Click-Bait Frustrations

Click-bait is annoying as hell. Click-bait also means revenue. 

Local TV news social media is no stranger to click-bait news stories. Usually, these stories are gut-wrenching tales of death and despair that tug on the heartstrings of even the most hardened viewers/readers. Every time you click on one of them it means more revenue and profits for the out-of-town corporations that own our local TV stations.

WPTA ABC 21Alive seems to be the worst offender, but WANE-15 also runs these stories on their social media platforms. But, WANE-15 deserves credit for offering the reader/viewer a bit more information.

Below, note, that the WPTA ABC 21Alive story, by lack of identification, implies that it occurred here, in Fort Wayne. But that's not true. The story that WPTA ABC 21Alive features didn't even happen in the US. It's from Nova Scotia, in Canada. 

WANE-15 wisely drops a hint to readers/viewers that the story they feature occurred in Kansas. 

Kudos to WANE-15 for helping readers/viewers make wise decisions on what they choose to click on, and what to scroll by. 

Balanced? Maybe, Maybe Not

WANE-15 aired a story a few days ago (October 15) alleging political yard sign vandalism in Van Wert, Ohio.

Here's a link to the story: https://www.wane.com/top-stories/van-wert-residents-targeted-for-having-harris-yard-signs/

It's a standard story during election time. Vandalism to political yard signs has been with us since, well, the first political yard sign appeared back in the 19th century. What made the WANE-15 report curious was that it implied that only signs supporting the Democratic Party presidential candidates were stolen/trashed. The local chairman of the Democrats was featured making comments about the vandalism, including concerns that residents were living in a fearful environment. 

The Maven wonders why no one contacted local Republican party officials to ask if their supporters' signs were damaged or stolen. Does the Republican chairman in Van Wert believe his supporters live in a fearful environment?

The Maven has no issue with the accuracy of the story, but does have concerns about "balance". 

Only interviewing the Democrat Party chairperson, and promoting a local Democratic Party event including time, location and ticket price information seems, in the Maven's opinion, to unbalance the story.

Please note: the ticket price information for the Van Wert Democratic Party event is only mentioned in the "live" report (imbedded in the story) and does not appear in the text of the story as published on WANE.COM. 

Leaving CBS News Behind...

The Maven has struggled with watching CBS News for quite a while.

Something is wrong with the operation. There has been a less-than-subtle shift from doing journalism to advancing an agenda. Reading the article linked below was the final straw. 

CBS News is broken and the Maven is abandoning them. 

Here's the link to The Free Press story:

https://www.thefp.com/p/does-cbs-news-know-where-jerusalem