Although, this great tool aids many people it is and will become the detriment of many societies. The fine line between entertainment and news is now a matter of cost. In the entirety of the news program, there were only two international news stories each taking a minute to report. On the other hand, there was live coverage of the American Teen Idol tryouts for about ten minutes of the news program with a live tease at every commercial. It is no coincidence that Fox News Corporation owns both the Fox channel and the Teen Idol program. Postman, an academic writer on the effects of television on social life and Postman, a Ph.D. and television journalist write "The idea is to make as much money as possible from news departments, sometimes to the detriment of truth and journalism"(7). There was more time given to a traffic accident, a police chase, and the weather than to the developments with the possible war with Iraq. According to the United States Census Bureau, over 34 million people live in California as of 2001. If ten percent of Californians view this news program, they shall not be informed of major developments that may affect their quality of life, but what the heck, they are being entertained. .
Researchers at the ASU research foundation have concluded that the average attention span of a normal American adult is about eight minutes. As busy Americans, we are not privileged to scrutinize the news that is voluntarily fed into our heads. Unfortunately, most television news producers play on this fact. A news program is created to simulate a trusting family environment and to be entertaining. The Good Day LA host consists of Steve Edwards, an older male anchor and two attractive female co-anchors Jillian Barberie and Dorthy Lucey. The customary time spent for weather is doubled when Jillian, who is the weather person, procrastinates and talks with Dorothy regarding the daily entertainment report.
