What I don’t like about WRAL is how they always try to freak people about “severe weather”, “counties under alert”, etc when in the end there is… Nothing. Yes, it rained and then what?
I always feel like the apocalypse is coming when going on their website.
And the regular articles definitely lack “substance” compared to N&O for example.
Weather porn is one of the great advances of the 21st century.
Even with the N&O’s paywalls or WRAL’s shallow and low-effort articles, you gotta admit they still get the job done when it comes to keeping up with the Triangle and surviving throughout the ages.
Stockton, CA wasn’t so lucky since their local newspaper got gutted, and locals started getting their news from a local blog filled with lies and misleading articles. And newsrooms around the country that do survive could get bought up by large companies that reshape them into propaganda machines like the Sinclair Broadcast Group.
I think it’s still important to keep it in context: it could be worse.
Still overpriced for toilet paper
I don’t know. Have you seen the price of toilet paper lately?
Hahaha lol, true true
Have you shopped for toilet paper recently? 
Oops! Someone beat me to it! LOL
I’m hoarding.
I’m paying for my subscription to the N&O b/c I recognize the value of local journalism, but my goodness is it an awful web experience. The site navigation is terrible and being bombarded with pop ups to join when I’m signed in is very frustrating.
This is off topic but WRAL is so old fashioned and never seems to have good things to talk about in regards to our local hbcus or the black community as a whole. ABC11 is more modern and they cover GOOD and bad news about all communities and don’t just mention bad news about NCCU for example, whenever something happens every other year like WRAL does. ABC11 actually mentions our hbcus’ sports teams and racial issues seem to be something they care about.
I apologize for bringing up race but this society bases everything on the concept of race and it’s one of the main sources of issues we face every year.
Help me understand your comment about how this society bases everything on race. This is a serious question and I ask in a manner to seek to understand this strong statement.
Sorry for the late response but I’m sure you’ve heard “first black” “first Asian american” on the news before and that is what I’m talking about. This is a western society issue, when you apply for scholarships, jobs, college, anything they ask about your race I’m not a fan of that. Also, if someone wants to frame a random person for a robbery they say it was a black guy. Oh and somewhat recently in NYC sheriffs told their officers to target black people and not Asian or white people. Look up “sundown towns” and look at all of the ones still in existence because shootings of unarmed black people or reports of missing people have occurred in some of them.
I went all over the place but I’m sure you get the idea. Just dm me if you have any questions.
I appreciate the response. That helped frame the issue. Thanks.
Locast, a nonprofit (donation-based) service that re-broadcasts local TV programs online, will start in the Triangle!
We’ve also had several off-topic conversations on other threads about the state of media outlets in our area, especially how some news sites are better than others at covering development issues and not unfairly amplifying NIMBY views. Maybe we can talk about those on this thread, in the future?
Would you mind if I just broaden the topic at Our local News outlets?
Oh, I forgot we have that thread! Yeah, go for it.
re: @trueurbanist’s post in the business expansion thread on whether WRAL is biased and/or unreliable:
I’m curious what everyone else thinks about this… If WRAL and the News & Observer (scroll above) are so low-effort and unreliable, what are better ways to learn about local issues that matter (this site doesn’t count)?
And if you don’t like any of the solutions out there (including newcomers like RAL Today or Patch), why? What’s missing?
Yea I know someone at ABC11 several people actually, ABC11 has such a focus on racial coverage because they are part of the ABC Owned Television Group and former President Wendy McMahon who just left for CBS to be co-president of news. But while she was there had put an emphasis on original reporting and data journalism which is earning WTVD Emmy. They also have a racial issues unit by the ABC Owned Station group sharing content and have a local race relations reporter.