Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
This is the stuff we want, and it's also what we deserve in the coming year. But there's programming we theoretically need, called "news," and that aspect of TV is looking pretty dreary.After its series finale on December 14, the fictional newsroom of HBO's The Newsroom is gone. With it goes most of America's diet of pompous pronouncements about journalistic ethics—outside of Gamergate, naturally.It doesn't seem like TV news could possibly become more of a swamp in 2015, but if I were you, I still wouldn't go there to find clarity. Millennials don't get local news from TV, so in all likelihood, the local news is going to continue to air mostly hysterical stories about local crime followed by segments about how to stretch your grocery-buying dollar, and how to spruce up your bathroom for autumn.CNN's declining ratings over 2014 resulted in penny-wise-and-dollar-dumb decision-making. The network's endless coverage of the missing Malaysian Airlines plane, and its panicky Ebola stories (although, looking back, too much blame for that may have landed on CNN's shoulders) made it look increasingly like a relic and not the reliable news source it once seemed to be. Sadly, given the poor ratings of their thought-provoking documentary shows, they probably won't make more of them.Still, if you like good TV news it's out there. 60 Minutes and Al Jazeera America aren't going anywhere, and did I mention a show called VICE?Follow Mike Pearl on Twitter.