WaPo: The media loved Trumps show of military might. Are we really doing this again?

[calimary]

31. It's the visuals. Television dontchaknow. PICTURES.

I remember working at one of the local TV news departments as a writer/segment producer. All kinds of news, that one night. But guess what we led with? An apartment house fire at a building that was at most three stories tall. Because we had the video. Video! Of Flames! Burning! Burning Building! FLAMES! OOOOhhh - whaddo we see?

I once posted here about the three main lessons I learned, on the job, as I started getting into news, professionally. Basic questions you should ask yourself as a reporter, when covering a story, or camera crew, or editor, or producer of the newscast that night:

#1: What happened? Learned that as an intern at a big local full-service AM station that had a large news department.

#2: Who cares? Learned that as a just-hired weekend anchor on a big local FM rock station.

#3: What do we see? Learned that as a writer/segment producer at the local TV station. Visuals-R-Us. Pictures. What are the PICTURES?