Kentucky Fried Movie Journalism--Fine in the 70's, Death Today

I'm the kind of guy who prefers tasteful cleavage to boobs in the face. The promise of what's to come is always more alluring than the obvious.

Not so much, though, when it comes to my news.

I want it all, right now. The five w's: who, what, when, where, and why, pronto.

I know we're also in the business of "teasing" listeners and viewers. We're often more concerned about whetting appetites and massaging diaries that we are in telling people what they need to know as soon as possible. Remember the anchor on "Kentucky Fried Movie", urgently telling viewers, "The popcorn you're eating has been pissed on--the story at 11!"

Case in point: the peanut butter salmonella story.

Read this guy's take, and then I'll give you mine:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/today/s_493893.html

We had this argument the other morning in the Radio City newsroom. Newsradio 620 WTMJ morning host Ken Herrera told of a t-v teaser he saw about a major insurance company that supposedly wasn't dealing straight with it's customers, tied in with another come-on about a local restaurant that allegedly failed health codes. Both teases, he said, came off like regular stories and lasted quite a while--both, he said, failed to answer the big question: WHO is the insurance company in question, and WHAT restaurant is serving up dirty chow?

As we shook our heads in collective disgust about another perceived dent in the fender of journalism, colleague John Jagler reminded us of all the radio teases we've delivered in the course of our careers, promising huge interviews or dazzling details "after traffic and weather together".

Touche.

There's a difference, though, between leaving a listener/viewer hanging through a spot set and making them wade through a night of prime time to find out if a restaurant they dined at is going to turn the viewer's lower G-I into a cappuccino maker, or if the peanut butter sammich the kids had for supper is going to endow them with the trots. There's teasing, and then there's being irresponsible.

Plus, what's the point? If I'm really, really turned on by a story but stymied because my station didn't give me the full poop, there's this thing called the internet that's proving to be pretty damn good at giving people what they want, when they want it. Folks are a Google search away from answering most any question, national or local. Maybe we Old Media types should give people what they want when they expect to get it and stop pretending it's 1982, when we had the audience by the information short-hairs.

Do we continue to tease, or do we risk becoming...inconsequential boobs?