On Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:40:23 -0700, dave wrote:


In broadcasting we don't tolerate crashes and freezing, because it tends
to annoy the audience. On the front lines, computers are very
mission-critical.

Talk about annoying the audience, a somewhat new trend in live local
TV news broadcasts in Chicago and I'll assume elsewhere the last few
years is to have a long shot showing the anchors in the foreground
while passerby on the street are shown since it now seems to be the
"in" thing to have a showcase studio at street level. Invariably some
yahoo stares or just has to wave or jump or down or do something dumb,
which in my options totally destroys the anchor's creditability making
the news, suppose to be a serious show, look more like a circus.

Even dumber is the director of CNBC's popular "Fast Money" show that
features motor mouth anchor Dyland Ratigan and four "experts" giving
stock tips each trying to out talk each other. While I find the banter
often interesting, the director constantly makes fast cuts to show one
of the experts not talking while you still hear the one that is. This
probably was a accident originally, but now it seems to be a "feature"
of the show with whoever the director switches to as soon as they're
aware the camera is on them they ham it up, like smirk or roll their
eyes or do something else silly while the other guy is still heard
talking. I don't get it.