The local newscasts on TV begin with the anchor’s dissertation of upcoming stories for the telecast.

Following that, the anchor begins with the first story, repeating what was said in the intro. Then the story goes on to a reporter who, you guessed it, rehashes the story for the third time.

And it doesn’t stop there. As each break is reached, we are reminded of upcoming stories. This is repeated throughout the broadcast. “We’ll be right back,” it seems to me, would save time, and be more helpful to us, the viewers. We know what stories are coming up; that ground was covered at the beginning of the telecast.

And it makes me crazy, when they tell us what’s coming up next, that they don’t follow the order of next. And even when they do, there’s always at least one story that really isn’t next until the end of the broadcast. They’re afraid of losing us; we are watching their program, we’re not going anywhere, are we?

I would also like to address, just how many times/days do we need to be told a story? This tells me they don’t have anything “new” to report, and so the repeating goes on, and on.

To me “local” means Lewiston and Auburn and the state, not goings on in D.C. or throughout the country, as we’re going to hear all about that in the following telecast on the “national” news.

Is it me, or am I just being critical?

Marc A. J. Jalbert, Lewiston

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