They're Former Officials Damn It!

* No Mike Huckabee is not a governor. He hasn't been one since 2007
* Neither is Sarah Palin who quit 7 years ago serving less then 3 years in office.
* Oliver North is not a Colonel. He resigned 25 years ago following his indictment in 1990.
* Newt Gingrich is not 'Mr Speaker'. He hasn't been speaker for the past 16 years since Jan. 1999.
* So called Mayor Rudy Giuliani hasn't been one for 15 years. It grates me how news readers introduce countless guests tending to give them more stature then they deserve. When these desk jockeys do they demonstrate they have a agenda in trying to promote and make their guests appear more creditable then they really are. It's misleading in-so-much as it places their has-been guests at the same level as present officials long after they left their positions.

I can't tell you how many times it annoys me when some ex CIA official or former military member turns up on the news speaking like they are privy to some sort of special information. Not after they haven't been in the loop nor briefed in years. They don't have any more insight what's going on then any of us who read this stuff somewhere.

The minute any newsreader begins to say we sat down and spoke with "blah, blah. blah" I switch channels. Let's not talk about the news REPORT THE DAMN NEWS INSTEAD!

Many of today's journalists are too damn lazy or their organizations too cheap to investigate things for themselves. Instead of spending the time trying to get a current official (someone actually actively in office) to speak they'd rather chew the fat with some has been to fill up a column or air-time till the next advertisement for cars or boner pills.

I'll bring up one more gripe concerning local TV news coverage. In any city you name the format's the same. In a 30 minute period we will visit the weather 3 times. Sports for five minutes at the end of the newscast (with one last 4th check on the weather) . Fluff pieces involving traffic conditions, two or three minutes about what's coming up, social agency, consumer and health check information segments. A bit of banter, 10 minutes of advertisements and maybe if you're lucky 7-8 minutes of actual news tops. Check it out for yourself. I did.

No wonder millennials elect to get their information on their smartphones. If you want to get an extra hour or two out of the day, I recommend skipping the TV news electing instead to subscribe to whatever online news source tickles your fancy. By doing so you'll cut through all the unnecessary bullshit that TV news has become both locally and nationally