An Open Letter to Fox News

To whom it may concern:

alert (ə-ˈlərt\): an urgent notice; an alarm or other signal of danger.

An alert, as the above definition borrowed from Merriam Webster clearly indicates, is not something that we should hear every day or even every year unless we live a particularly dangerous life.Yet, your news organization has made a habit of issuing official sounding alerts, complete with custom computer graphics and sound effects, for every minor news event that happens to cross a copywriter's mind.

For example, this very morning I heard one of your morning anchors transition from some frivolous piece of pseudo-journalism directly to a "Fox News Alert" that breathlessly implied that some major breaking news was imminent with regard to the Roland Burris scandal. However, in the ensuing report,the correspondent clearly stated that no activity was expected until more than two hours later and even then the expected activity was a highly scripted and symbolic nonevent that cameras wouldn't be allowed to record.

Please tell me precisely what was so urgent about telling your audience that nothing of particular interest was happening or going to happen for at least two hours that it necessitated the issuance of an alert.

Perhaps even more annoying than the issuance of "alerts" for absolute nonevents is the continued reissuance of these alerts when events continue to not happen. I can't count the number of times I've listened intently after hearing "This is a Fox News Alert" only to hear the same piece of information the anchor has been repeating ad nauseum for hours regurgitated in a slightly different order.

Don't get me wrong: I am actually a fan of Fox News and I enjoy having a more balanced alternative to the massive liberal media that dominates most of the other channels, but please realize that sensationalist overuse of gimmicks like the "Fox News Alert" is causing at least one loyal viewer to watch less and less.

Regards,
Josh