Despite my protestations the other day about all the negatives in news, I do still peruse a regular run of news sites around the web. My favorites are of course the aggregation of news on the Google news site, and the Huffington Post.
I was a little disappointed today when I browsed to 9news.com, the website of a local TV station.
The top 1/3 of the page deals almost exclusively with national news. While I 
enjoy national news that is applicable to me, I don’t think that my local TV station, who is given a license by the F.C.C. in return for a promise to serve the local community should be my primary source for national news.
In 2012 there are hundreds of sources I can turn to for national news. There is the internet of course, and countless 24-hour news channels on cable TV. There are darn few sources of local news.
Since I don’t actually watch channel 9 news, I thought I’d go check the website of the channel I watch most often for local news. That would be the local channel 7. Their website is harder and longer to type, so I don’t visit it often – for some reason it is thedenverchannel.com.
Sure enough, the top 1/3 of their website is all about local news, and the national news is relegated to a “beneath the fold” location, where it belongs on a web site that should be devoted to local resources.
Even the local Fox news channel, kdvr.com has most of the top 1/3 of their page (but not all) devoted exclusively to local news. I’d rather go without news than watch Fox, but I do applaud the fact that at least they remember they are supposed to be a local resource.
The CBS television station, channel 4, KCNC doesn’t even bother to maintain their own website – they use a generic template run by CBS at denver.cbslocal.com. That’s even worse than Channel 9. That’s no local representation at all.
Television and Radio station licenses are not given out to people and corporations so that they can make a gazillion dollars. They are handed out in return for a promise from the broadcaster that they will service the local community in some way, using the license to broadcast on a specific radio frequency. Radio Frequencies are “public property”, thus their use is controlled, and it is supposed to be for the good of the community in some manner.
Again, in todays age of the internet, where you can watch movies, have a live conversation, look up information, listen to music – radio and tv and libraries are rapidly becoming less important to our society, but, while they are still here, they should at least try to pay homage to the terms of their licensing.