Saturday Night Live has a track record of sending up broadcast news with its long-running “Weekend Update” sketch. But every once in awhile it takes the skewering a step further, like the “Headline News” skit from the Oct. 23 show.
Even though it’s parody, there are several elements there you’d expect in an actual, overdone broadcast story: ominous lead-ins, emphasis on certain words, the shot of students from the neck down, dramatic black-and-white shots, interviews with a frantic mother and a seemingly confused teenager.
Broadcast outlets have plenty of horrifying, great-for-TV, rumored trends to chase down — spunkball, shooting up shampoo, getting high on Coca-Cola and aspirin, consuming vodka through the eyeballs or vagina, rainbow parties, and jelly bracelets, to name a few. Shouldn’t they be doing some fact-checking first?