News Tease Hall Of Fame: Teen Sex Offenders In Your School!

As I was watching Lost tonight, I couldn’t help but notice the news tease for the special report on ABC25’s 10PM newscast tonight. The story is about the possibility of teenage sex offenders roaming the halls of the schools. It looks to fit all the criteria of modern broadcast journalism teases:

1. Ominous music
2. The phrase “sex offender”
3. Asking how the story will affect the viewers’ children

There is another ad they played towards the end of the episode that started with the phrase “Kids molesting kids.”

I really can’t imagine Edward R. Murrow promoting a sensationalistic story like this in his newscast. If someone thinks this this is actually legitimate journalism, I’d love to hear the argument. I personally just see it as fear mongering as a method of getting ratings.