F as in Fat

[Reed John]

http://healthyamericans.org/reports/obesity2009/

Mississippi sweeps both awards this year once again. Congratulations.

These figures conform to stereotypes pretty closesly.

[Cal Alamein]

F as in Fat

You can make a sweeping generalization paralleling a political Red/Blue state map as well.

[Reed John]

F as in Fat

Red/Blue tracks rural v. urban too.

What it show most importantly, I think, is that, counter to the experience of the other however-many thousands of years humans have been on earth, in the 21st century, obesity is a disease of poverty. That also tracks the anecdotal/stereotypical experience.

[Bruno]

F as in Fat

They just did a story on this on MSNBC and were rolling the customary stock footage of headless obese people schlepping down sidewalks, into banks, etc. That'd be a fun job for a cameraman, though.

[Reed John]

F as in Fat

I believe that's called "B-roll." Other well worn loops from the B-roll library are "people fueling up at gas stations" for whenever there's a price hike and "cars fishtailing in the street, dude shovelling his walk, kids building snowmen" whenever there's a blizzard.

I'm semi-convinced that all stations show the same b-roll for "Blizzard hits Buffalo" whenever the first big storm hits Western New York (which is usually in, like, August) and that they only get new footage about every 10 years. Somebody might notice if the cars struggling up the slick were all from the 1970s.

[Incandenza]

F as in Fat

Reed of the Valley People wrote:

I believe that's called "B-roll." Other well worn loops from the B-roll library are "people fueling up at gas stations" for whenever there's a price hike and "cars fishtailing in the street, dude shovelling his walk, kids building snowmen" whenever there's a blizzard.

For obvious reasons, our local news never shows blizzard footage. But another popular one is people smoking, and don't forget the shots of pharmacists moving pills around in that little tray thing when talking about prescription drugs. A recent story we watched on ATMs showed a Bank of America ATM that had their logo from the 1980s.

A while back SNL had a somewhat funny sketch about these called the "stock footage awards." Don't know if it's on Hulu, but it might be worth a look.

[Reed John]

F as in Fat

I remember that SNL bit. Excellent.

It reveals the major problem with TV news. So many stories aren't enhanced by visuals.

[WOM]

F as in Fat

Almost as dependable a component of local news is the 'downtown shot with four girls going 'wooooo' and then laughing nervously'.

It's quite flexible. When you're in a run for the cup, have the four girls go "Go ! Woooooo! (laugh and look at each other)."

Now, I think you know me well enough by now to know I'm not usually violent, but this 'wooo' thing makes me want to kill them all, and then myself, and not leave a note.

[Incandenza]

F as in Fat

Hmm, have to say I've never seen that. Drunken guys in a sports bar going "whoo!," yes.

[Ant van Oviedo]

F as in Fat

Or drunken guy (usually would-be Leyton Hewitt look-a-like) in the street, probably having been thrown out of said sports bar, coming right up to the camera and going "Whooo!"

Good point made by Reed about how obesity no longer means prosperity.