It's official: local TV news is a farce. The Project for Excellence in Journalism finds this hype industry exaggerates crime, sells out to advertisers, and is thinned out by budget cuts and over-airing (stations fill the air with "news" because it's cheaper than buying syndicated programming). We had a hunch about this, but it's depressing to see the numbers PEJ put together. For example, one of four stories in local news is about crime.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011114/us/tv_local_news_1.html