News

Flightless Bird

David Farrier

Comedy, Flightless Bird, Documentary, Society & Culture, David Farrier

5 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2022

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David sets out to understand American Network News, and the country’s obsession with rolling 24/7 news coverage. Why does the Fox News Channel average more total viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined, and how is American TV news faring in the wake of Twitter and TikTok? David talks to Stacy Scholder, a professor at the University of Southern California who teaches TV journalism. What is she teaching the next generation of TV journalists, and what was it like covering OJ Simpson’s escape on the LA freeway? He also meets Victor Vlam, a 38 year old man in the Netherlands who has the biggest collection of news theme songs on the planet. Why does he have 876 hours, 2 minutes and 52 seconds of news music? Victor explains the importance of news theme music, and what it says about the news you’re about to hear. What’s the best news theme song, and the worst?

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm David Ferrier and New Zealand are accidentally marooned in America and I want to figure out what makes this country tick.
0:07.0	Now it should come as no surprise to you by now that New Zealand is a small place.
0:12.0	With that in mind, it should also come as no surprise that we only have
0:15.1	two main news stations. For years their names weren't very creative. One was on Channel
0:20.5	1 and its new show was called One News. The other main new show was
0:25.1	on channel three and that was called Three News. This is three news with
0:31.0	Hillary Barry and Mike McRobberts.
0:33.8	So imagine my shock and all when I came to America and discovered you didn't have just two
0:38.4	TV news programs, you had hundreds and hundreds of them.
0:42.3	I suppose it makes sense because there's so much news going on in America all the time.
0:47.0	What did you think about the ride?
0:49.0	It was great, and apparently I've never been on live television before.
0:55.0	I don't watch the news.
0:57.0	Look, I'm not surprised. There's simply too much news to watch.
1:01.0	From local news to national networks, hour-long bulletins to 24-hour cable news, wherever you turn, news news news,
1:10.0	there's so much news going on, sometimes journalists and presenters can't wait for a private moment and literally start masturbating mid-interview.
1:18.0	What the hell were you thinking?
1:20.0	Well, obviously I wasn't thinking very well or very much.
1:24.0	News is a vital part of American democracy,
1:27.0	a way for communities to be informed,
1:30.0	and for the country to try and reckon with events far beyond our comprehension.
1:34.3	This just in you are looking at obviously a very disturbing life shot there.
	...

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