National TV 'News' Scores an Epic Fail for an Epic Flood in Louisiana

[Commentary] An open letter to the algorithm in charge of TV news. Dear NewsBot, I've got a bone to pick with you, whatever gender you may be. I gave up on TV news a long time ago. Broadcast, cable -- it doesn't matter. The only benefit broadcast has over cable in this regard is there's so much less of it -- and by it, I mean the brain-cell-killing noise pollution that is the bulk of what you program. The only time I tune in is when something big is happening, a massive live pop-culture or political event. And something was unfolding in Louisiana.

It started last week and continued into this week. A natural disaster of historic proportions. A low-pressure system parked itself over the southern part of my home state and the rains began and didn't stop for days. And you, NewsBot, were programming Donald Trump or whether or not Adele was going to be the entertainment at next year's Super Bowl. The people of Louisiana noticed you weren't covering. And that matters, too. Putting aside ratings and viewers -- and for the broadcast networks, your federally mandated duty in exchange for airwaves -- you're actually feeding into the divide you make your anchors pretend to care about. Some people are worth covering. Others aren't. In fact, your lack of hyperventilating coverage has become a partisan issue. This is one of the reasons you're seen not as a harmless bit of infotainment, but as part of some almost-sinister tool of an elite establishment. Perhaps if you spent less time giving Trump breathless coverage and more time covering actual people, those people wouldn't be so predisposed to side with him.

[Ken Wheaton is the editor of Advertising Age]