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SWPenn t1_j5tewvx wrote

Always remember and don't ever forget: Local news's job is to get you to watch. That's it. The goal is ratings and revenue. The more eyeballs and clicks, the more they can charge for ads. The advertisers are their customers, not the viewers. It's been that way since the late 70s when consultants told station owners that news could be a big profit center.

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TotalJagoff t1_j5tnv9p wrote

Exactly. Local news is generally garbage and that has nothing to do with political bias or journalistic effort and everything to do with profitability. Per screen-minute, weather is probably the cheapest to create and generates the most revenue. Get you all riled up, get you to share, get you to engage with their content, that's the aim.

If it was about real journalism the investigative reporting would happen year round and not just during sweeps months, but that's when they have to invest to see the highest return on their rate cards.

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sctlight t1_j5toh8d wrote

And there’s little excitement in predicting 30-40 degrees and grey for 5 months a year.

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