Reading the News While Learning Nothing

I've complained in the past about the stupidness that seems to emanate from local TV newsreaders whenever there's a car chase in Los Angeles and the TV people are forced to go off teleprompter.  They just can't let the pictures speak for themselves but have to fill every moment of air time with insipid conjecture and dumb questions.

There were no pursuits last night, but we did have the chance to let the anchors off the teleprompter once more as an earthquake rattled through Southern California.  Understand that while earthquakes are certainly news, they're not exactly rare around here.  We have them with sufficient frequency that they really shouldn't be much of a mystery to people who regularly report (or read) the news.

Last night as the quake rumbled through I immediately flipped over to Los Angeles Channel 9, the only station with a local newscast on at 9:30 pm.  It took them a minute or two before they broke away from their canned report to go to earthquake coverage, and then it was a non-stop parade of stupid.  The anchors who were working are not rookies or new to California - these people have been on the air here for years and yet they seemed to know absolutely nothing about earthquakes or what can be expected after a large event.  I was just about to throw my show through the screen.

I used to teach earthquake preparedness to my employees at the bank, so I probably have a little more knowledge of the subject than the average person, but surely people who have reported on earthquakes for years and have heard the same things I've heard from the experts at Cal Tech would have learned something from all that.

Surely not.  Geez, those people were worthless.

The banter between the anchors, and even the questions posed to various emergency officials showed a complete lack of understanding of the subject.  And, of course, they always end up with some yahoo on the phone reporting from near the epicenter who says something like "I barely caught the glass with my teeth in it before it fell off the nightstand!".

I swear the viewers who were watching last night lost several IQ points along the way.

Next time, Channel 9, call me.