Tease Trouble

Stop me if you've heard this before. Oh, that's right, you can't.

Anyway, something that kind of bugs me is newscasts that won't give you important information in their news tease when that information should trump their desire to peak my curiosity by not wh4etting my appetite. To me, it is simply a lesser variation of, say, this tease:

"Poison found in popular soft drink that could kill instantly. Tune in at 11 to find out which one."

I understand you don't give away the store on most stories. That's what a tease is all about. But if the information rises to a certain level, it transcends the tease. I'm arguing the level should be higher than it sometimes is.

For example, I won't name names, but for a story about the FBI having determined that the threat of dirty bombs at NFL stadiums was a total hoax, a certain news operation teased the story saying: The NFL has gotten to the bottom of the threat," without allaying any fears until the story aired much later in the show. "The NFL has determined the NFL terrorist scare was a hoax. We'll tell you who was responsible" is a more responsible approach, even if it draws a few fewer eyeballs into the tent, or wherever you draw eyeballs.

Just a thought.

By John Eggerton