Hilarious And Depressing Video Exposes How Phony Local TV News Has Become
Zaid Jilani
Conan O’Brien shows how America’s #1 source of news has been infiltrated by press release garbage.
But what if the local news Americans are consuming isn’t trustworthy? What if some newscasts are actually more focused on selling a product than informing the public?
“Ripping and reading”—a nickname for the practice of taking a press release and reading it on air—is a disturbing trend that has disseminated on local newscasts. In December, comedian Conan O’Brien took on the practice in a hilarious segment featuring a spree of local news anchors reading the same words from a press release about Christmas gifts.
What is causing this rise in local news journalists sharing content that is often ripped straight from a press release? In 2011, the press advocacy organization Free Press published a reporttitled “Outsourcing the News” that documented how consolidation was leading newsrooms to share critical resources and often the exact same content, no matter who the audience. It runs through various case studies where increasing consolidation among news stations is creating identical content.
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