This is the season of Year in Review preoccupation in the local and national media. Those interminable stories reminding us of everything that happened throughout the last year on the premise that we weren't paying attention most of the time but for some reason we are in the last two weeks of December. Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?

This ritualized waste of effort stems from three things: there's precious little news in the second half of December aside from unforeseen disasters, reporters and editors desire to put stories in the can so they can take time off at the holidays, and the media has a hard time not repeating institutionalized bad habits such as this. But in an era of relentless contraction at newspapers and budget cuts in TV news, why waste the space? If there's no staff around or there's nothing happening, put out a smaller paper and save the newsprint for when you need it.

Year in Review stories have an evil sibling: memorialization of tragedy stories. A year ago, two years ago, five years ago, this town was destroyed by a tornado, a flood, locusts . . . . This is another lazy trope that serves no purpose and is a waste of space and your time. If there is meaning to be gleaned from such anniversaries, we rarely get any. Just audio of a tolling church bell . . . .

And this December, we have a new category of lazy journalist crutch: "the economy is really bad" story. This consists of a live shot of an empty shopping mall corridor, an interview with someone who is spending less, and a shopkeeper who is determined to ride it out as long as they can. Problem is, a lot of these stories are disassociated from any real economic news or fresh trends. They are simply a cliché of the holiday season during a recession.

But I think TV news is playing with fire on this one. I can't absorb any more gratuitous fear mongering. Ninety percent of Americans still have their jobs. Ninety percent of shops are still open. If there is nothing new to say, how about shutting up? Actually, blather on, but I have tuned out. And so have a lot of other people. I have no sympathy for the folks who only want good news in a newscast or newspaper, but it's another thing entirely to randomly dispirit people because it's an easy cliché for lazy reporters. And it's a crutch that is going to bite TV news in the ass, trust me. A lot of us are tuning out.

That's my year in review. Now make it a great 2009, wontcha? :)