Lack of News

The beat of local, national, and international has been beating fast a furious over the last couple of weeks.

One thing I have noticed from all of the news is sometimes the lack of news from international stories. For example, have you heard much about the coup in Honduras? Probably not.

I have a couple of theories as to why there hasn't been much covered with this story.

• The 3 Deaths (they always come in three's).

1. Ed McMahon
2. Farrah Fawcett
3. Michael Jackson

The Michael Jackson story has equaled HUGE ratings for television networks. As it should in my opinion. It is a huge story and a huge loss that has a global reach.

• The coup in Honduras story also occurred over a weekend. Have you seen network tv/ 24/7 "news" networks on the weekends? It is all re-runs and talking heads. Very little new "news" is being shown. I am sure this is primarily due to the economy. It is expensive to keep producers, reporters, photographers, anchors, production technicians, and engineers working over the weekend. Especially when they can just throw on a re-run of the life of prisoners in "Lockup".

• I think the biggest reason for the lack of news is the cut-back by the US news networks of the international bureaus. For over a decade the networks have been taking people out of their foreign offices. Some even closing them. Now you might have one producer, a reporter, and a photographer covering an entire continent. That makes it hard to jump on stories when they happen.

Do I think this is a good thing? Absolutely not. International news is important, especially in a global community.

Do I see this changing? Not anytime soon. Networks are in the business of making money. Staffing foreign offices with 10-15 people and paying for the office space is not cheap.

I would enjoy hearing your thoughts. Do you want to see international news? Do you think it is important?