News overreaction

For once, I agree with Ruth Ann Dailey and her May 17 column with regard to our insipid, insensitive TV stations in Pittsburgh and the way they sensationalize human tragedies and attempt to pass it off as news ("In a Tragedy's Wake, Respect the Unknowns").

All four stations in the Pittsburgh viewing area are guilty of over-dramatizing anything and everything, but coverage of the little girl on McKnight Road was downright pathetic. None of us is super-human, and every parent, I'm sure, has a story to tell, including myself, of an overactive child sneaking out of the home, in a supermarket line or shopping center in split-second time at the opportune moment. That doesn't make the parent negligent or criminal, but scared stiff and more vigilant in the future.

Yes, some people do severely neglect and abuse their children but, unfortunately, those cases most likely never get reported! However, as far as reporting the news by our four notable TV stations is concerned, they don't report news, but dabble in trivia, nonsense and inanity so much so that one cannot help but wonder if they consider their viewing audience to be made up of morons or if they hire the stupid to report to the stupid!

MARLIESE BONK
Swisshelm Park