Breaking News?

Madison.com 11/11/2018  3:09 pm 

There is a lot of competition in the news business.  There always has - going back to the newsboys standing on the corner selling papers shouting to passers-by to buy a paper to learn the very latest.

There is a deadline every second now so it is non-stop quest for eyeballs and clicks in the news biz.

Old mic flag from my time at
KWWL-TV.  (dwm photo)

A definition I found online describes Breaking News as newly received information about an event that is currently occurring or developing.

The latest one to cross my attention was on Madison.com last Sunday - "Morris Togstad last Madisonian to die in waning hours of World War I."

Sorry - this is not breaking news.  It may be new information, but the war ended 100 YEARS AGO so put away the "breaking news" click bait.

Madison.com isn't the only one doing this.  News networks and most news websites roll out breaking news about day-old car crashes, house fires, and shootings.

Just like fresh bread becomes "day-old" in 24 hours - there is a shelf-life to breaking news.

Breaking News!  I used to be
the Rock County Bureau Reporter
at Channel 3.  (dwm photo)

If something happens (crash, fire, shooting) it is breaking.  It may qualify as breaking news even an hour or so later.

Later than that, most of us have seen it on a screen or heard about it over radio, television, or whatever we might be streaming. 

You can't call it breaking anymore.  

Using the "breaking news" siren call diminishes credibility when it is thrown out to get our attention when the information itself is already dated.   

Come on, friends, you can do better than this!   And since you can, when you do, that will not be breaking news either.