STEP OFF a plane anywhere in the United States, tune in to the local TV news programs and you're likely to see a succession of reports on murders, shootouts, rapes, traffic wrecks, fires and other grisly events.
In many local TV newsrooms, the tacit rule is: "If it bleeds, it leads."Often, the more lucid the story the better its chances of topping the broadcast. The results are a lot closer to "America's Most Wanted" or "A Current Affair" than anything that might make a journalist feel proud.
Spinning the dial is unlikely to provide relief. The same stories, reported in much the same way, can be found on different channels.
Violent calamities - breathlessly narrated with arresting footage of police tape, body bags and the like - fascinate TV news programmers. But context is usually absent; attention is lavished on tragic events, but not on what might have caused (or prevented) them.
Intent on providing adrenalin-pumping visuals, local TV coverage is apt to emulate the bang-bang tone of prime-time dramas, augmented by comments from tearful loved ones, witnesses and police.
Dramatic crime reports and brief news items are accompanied by anchors' "happy talk" chatter, weather and sports reports, and, of course, plenty of commercials - about one minute of ads for every four minutes of "news." To round out the show, local broadcasts commonly close with a cuddly "human interest" story affirming the basic goodness of the community.
It all may be a bit bewildering, but TV news is not about making sense - it's about making money. Lots of it.
While layoffs and cost-cutting have been common in news departments, advertiser dollars are drawn to local TV news, partly because - as the New York Times has put it - "many sponsors think news programs attract affluent viewers." It's a winning combination for the owners and a loser for the public.
Even when dealing with substantive topics, local TV news reporting tends to be shoddy. In 1990, the Columbia Journalism Review published a devastating account by a researcher who spent 50 days inside TV newsrooms in several metropolitan areas.
"Overall, 18 of the 32 stories analyzed - 56 percent - were inaccurate or misleading," reported John McManus, director of the journalism program at Santa Clara University. Making matters worse, "Often the station made no effort to correct obvious ommissions.
McManus found a pattern: "There is an economic logic to these distortions and inaccuracies. All but one were likely to increase the story's appeal, help cut down the cost of reporting or oversimplify a story so it could be told in two minutes."
Some TV newsrooms trim budgets by using free footage provided by PR departments of various corporations and other well-financed institutions. Many times, the hardly impartial provider of these "video press releases" is not identified.
The abysmal condition of most local TV news largely reflects a deregulated broadcast industry that has scant commitment to the public interest - and fervent commitment to maximizing profits.
Eager to know what's going on in their neighborhoods and in the region, many people who have a low opinion of local TV news end up watching it anyway. What they see on television - night after night - ignores major issues, and hobbles the ability of communities to confront their problems.