I was like...

I was watching a TV news broadcast last night. A reporter was interviewing a witness as part of a convoluted story about a crime. The witness was a teenage girl and the 'sound bite' that was chosen to be included in the final version of the news report was this:

"I was, like, whoa!"

Now I can't really be sure of the correct placement of the commas in that quote, but I'm pretty sure that the statement itself was content free. And I have to wonder at the reporter who thought that it was significant enough to be included in the story. I suspect that 'air time' is valuable and limited. (I know MY time is valuable and limited, but evidently not so much that I can't spend it watching drivel on television news.) I certainly hope the reporter knew, at least, that there wasn't really a statement there.

Do you suppose this was the daughter of the Producer who just wanted to be on TV? Or was the reporter simply required to have an interview with somebody so it boiled down to either the blithering idiot or the passing dog?

Anyway, I'm hoping this isn't another case of standards slipping... "Content" would seem to be a basic requirement of communication. But maybe not.

Dude!