TCWF Toxic Custard hits the States


The News - Air crashes and the like

Following the air disaster in Florida, it's time for the FAA to start asking the hard questions: Who in their right mind would choose to fly on an airline with a name as tacky as "ValuJet"?

Actually, while in America, we heard of what would have to rate as the silliest air crash ever. I'm sure you all remember it. Little seven year-old Jessica, trying to be the youngest ever to fly across the USA. Is the human race OUT OF OUR MINDS?! A seven year old, barely able to reach the pedals?! Where does it end? My son Isaac has just turned one, should he be the next to try for the record?

Watching the news in the US was amusing. I'm at a safe distance, so it's probably safe to name names: KNVX, Phoenix. This station has a news service that fulfils just about every cliche of bad news reporting you could think of.

They don't just have theme music. Nope. They've got some DJ announcer and sound effects when their logo comes on.

<deep voice> This is KNVX News, Phoenix. <KNVX logo flies onto screen with a swoop, then four punch sounds as the letters N E W S appear>

And the newsreaders! What attitude! While one would read the story, the other would shake his/her head in disbelief. Then for any story where anybody had screwed up anything, they'd look at each other and make a snide remark, with the tone of voice that normally goes with the words, "how stupid can you get?"

It was comforting to see that on other channels, like here in Australia, there were newsreaders who just read the news.

The odd thing about most of the free-to-air broadcast news services was that "world" news was mostly from elsewhere in the United States. It wasn't until the massacre in Tasmania that we saw some news from home. Triffic, had to be that, didn't it.

Thankfully CNN was much better. Okay, so there was a lot of crap on the cable channels, but there was a lot of good stuff too. The moment the Australian cable carriers bring through VH1 and a channel that gets C-Net, I'll pounding on their doors to sign up (instead of the other way round).


Culture for sale School bus!

TCWF Toxic Custard Hits The States