What is the value of a television reporter...

Freedom of the press?

I too have wondered about these 'reporters' going along in the car and yapping about the dangerous road conditions of ice and snow and etc. etc. Often times they look over towards the camera so they aren't even paying mind to the road or the frigging tree limb which is in the process of falling direct in front of them.

Same with the nutjobs out by the beach during the raging storm, even though it's been made clear that it is an arrestable offense to be there during the storm and that law enforcement persons will be taking you away.

The reports don't serve any purpose as far as I can tell. It's clear what the weather is and that it's dangerous. Tell us this and leave it at that.

Then again, it does take away from those charming (cough, cough, gag, gag) stories about the store with 400 different kinds of pepper or the clothing store which has some simply divine plastic hangers.

News ain't what it used to be on the television. It died with Walter Cronkite, John Chancellor and a few others.

Thank you for coming to this thread, Sturgis. It is delightful to see you back. Hope all is well.

Glad we are on the same page about this reporting while driving nonsense. I have no idea of what it is about...other than theater.

Thanks for the thought, Bobsal, but I think we can protect freedom of the press without reporters driving cars in snowstorms.

People want it. Or the media (owners) think, people want it.

It makes a plus due to more adverts. And avoids catastrophe tourism.

Question, Walter...

...do they have reporters doing this sort of thing over in Germany?

Anyone else from a country other than America: Do they have them doing it where you reside?

It is an absurd thing to allow...and I am almost hoping we are the only ones silly enough to allow it.

The benefit to society of showing people how dangerous and horrible conditions are and possibly saving thousands of lives is greater than the possible cost of one reporter's life.

Reporting unsafe conditions from a studio works every bit as well??? And if the ride absolutely must be taken in order to inform...why not have someone who is not a reporter or a crew member shooting the shot...be the driver!

Anyway...I am not as concerned about the life of the reporter or his/her crew...as I am interested in the life of people who have to be out there...and who may be hit by a distracted driver.

What is the value of a television reporter...

$37.50 in Canadian dollars would be my best guess

I don't think that we have something similar.

Good. I am hoping we in America are the only one thoughtless enough to allow this kind of thing to happen.

And of course, I am hoping we eventually stop it from happening. We have freedom of the press...but we also can demand that media conform to laws intended to prevent distracted, dangerous driving.

Isn't this more related to "demand and supply" than to freedom of the press?

I don't think it is related to freedom of the press in any significant way, Walter. That was something I think Bobsal proposed almost whimsically.

And I do not see what it has to do with supply and demand.

Why on Earth do television stations have to have reporters driving cars around reporting on how dangerous it is to be driving...when they are adding to the danger they are reporting, by having the person driving doing so while distracted by having to report a snowstorm?