I’ve watched “Good Day, New York” for years. Over 15 years actually. It’s one of the few shows that I’ve missed watching during the last seven months. You can imagine that I was looking forward to catching it a few times during my vacation… and I’m glad that I did see a few episodes. Unfortunately one of the reporters that has joined the show over the last few months made me want to drop kick the TV.

I don’t know who the reporter was, but I remember the two interviews that pissed me off rather well. The reporter was interviewing a senior member of the New York City police force, talking to him about the up coming New Years Eve festivities. The generally accepted opinion is that there will be three quarters of a million people packed into Times Square. That’s a lot of people, given that Times Square itself is the junction of five city streets, but it’s a long standing tradition for New York City. Granted another generally accepted opinion is that only tourists bother going, and even then, it’s a once in a lift time gig – very few repeat attendants.

Obviously, with this many people backed into the area for a well televised event, security becomes a hot news topic. It’s just inevitable for the reporter to realize that this will be a popular topic – this particular reporter jumped on it, right out of the gate. She asks what the NYPD will be doing to keep people safe; the cop answers with some information. She then continues with the security theme and points out that there was an attack on a military base in Iraq. She’s of the opinion that if a bomber can get onto a military base, that they can get anywhere. So she asks the cop if they can promise that no one will get through. And when the cop answers that they have checkpoints, she asks the same question again. And again. And again. She refused to let the topic go until the cop admitted that they can never secure every place, everywhere, at all times.

Fine. Point made. But to what end? To insight fear? To cause a panic? To point out the fuckin’ obvious? I fail to see the point of it, but fine. It happened, and I got over it. In fact, I forgot about it until the next day.

The same reporter was interviewing the police commissioner. She asked a few random questions about his job and then got onto the topic of security for New Years Eve. And went on to ask the exact same questions over and over, until the same exact point was made.

I just sat there, at a loss. I had figured that the reporter got a little out of control the first day – and would had had a talking to once the show was over – but then it happened again? And again, to what end? What is the point of it all? It made me wonder if the director told her to ask these questions – that would be an ugly symptom of a bigger problem… it’s just sad that news has come down to this level of crap.

Of course, if a bitch-slapper was on staff to keep all of these people in line, it would be a much happier newscast.