Fox News debuts bizarre, giant tablets in its outrageous new 'newsroom'

[n2doc]

By T.C. Sottek on October 7, 2013 12:46 pm



Fox News has just unveiled a breathtakingly ridiculous newsroom, complete with novelty-sized Windows-based touchscreens, a Twitter wall, and a wannabe Minority Report-style display, which it hopes will connect it with generations of viewers who use smartphones and apps.

In a video that could be mistaken for a College Humor or Saturday Night Live parody, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith walks viewers through the network's new setup, which includes workstations with 55-inch touchscreen monitors. In the video, journalists swipe through pages and apps, presumably collecting information for live reporting. "We call these BATs," Smith notes. "Big area touchscreens."

Smith later demonstrates a gigantic 38-foot-long video wall with a device "never been used in broadcast television before." It's a remote control that allows Smith to shuffle through an image carousel with no apparent journalistic purpose. "For instance, I can take this lady who's been evacuating from a hurricane zone and move it over here," Smith says.

Fox says the new "news deck" is designed to appeal to viewers who are "nonlinear" — those who sift through news all day on their phones and computers. "Just like you, we get our news from multiple platforms," Smith says, "and this is the place where viewers can watch us sort it all out as it happens." In other words, Fox's new newsroom will serve as a fact-checking machine for Twitter's firehose.

more
http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/7/4812630/fox-news-shepard-smith-news-deck

[lpbk2713]

1. They're begging for it.

Someone is going to take up the challenge and hack into their system
and put raunchy porn on all those screens while they are on the air.

[n2doc]

5. Yep. It has happened before to other channels

http://metro.co.uk/2013/10/03/penis-shown-behind-news-anchors-head-during-live-broadcast-4132937/

Of course, with Fox, the dicks are right up front and center.

[Nevernose]

14. Nice.

[DJ13]

6. That would be funny!

[tularetom]

2. All that technology to camoflage the same old bullshit.

Maybe they could better spend the money on fact checking their stories like the one that Obama offered to personally fund the operation of the Muslim museum if it had to close due to the government shutdown.

[C_U_L8R]

3. All those fancy toys... Wheeeee

And not a single fact checker in the house.

[Fumesucker]

4. Reminds me of something

[JoePhilly]

10. Reminded me of this ...

[Enrique]

7. Shep is the only one who seems to like it

everyone else they talk to seems kind of bummed. Maybe the journalists didn't used to have to wear ties and now they do because they're on air because of this dumb gimmick.

[JoePhilly]

8. Close up of the screen for the guy in the back right ....

[IDemo]

9. Hint to the lady on the left

Red 7 on black 8.

[bhikkhu]

11. Those are either really big screens, or they hired a bunch of Oompa-loompas

Its hard to tell.

[MatthewStLouis]

12. Ha! When I first read your title I imagined stone tablets with the 10 commandments. Hee hee.

Yes, those are freakishly large. I'd be embarrassed to have someone catch me watching people tap on those things! They're about as cool as Jitterbug phones.

[KamaAina]

27. I imagined bottles of Viagra

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. lol. bigger screens = better news program?

[C_U_L8R]

15. Really big but really low rez screens

By the looks of it, those screens have less content than your average laptop screen. What's the point of sitting in front of a giant screen with a giant browser just so you can look at a super sized version of Free Republic or some other idiotic web site. Are they overcompensating for something???

[C_U_L8R]

20. Fewer pixels than an iPad

All that screen space for 4 tweets... Fox idiots.

Hilarious article here... http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/10/08/fox-news-new-giant-microsoft-touch-screens-have-fewer-pixels-than-an-ipad

[pinboy3niner]

16. It looks like a remedial junior high class in the background

I applaud FNC's new transparency!

[jsr]

19. +1

[SoCalDem]

17. Video drafting tables

[adirondacker]

18. They needed a larger surface area to spread the fecal matter. nt

[hatrack]

21. Big, shiny! So shiny, and so very very very big!

Stop talking, stop thinking, no more noise! Want to watch people operating shiny, big shinies!

[gort]

22. Seriously, BATs?

They do know some people say they're BAT-shit crazy, right? Guess this proves it.

I would think that BAT would stand for Big Ass Touchscreens. I guess I get that from playing too Doom when I was younger.

[JHB]

23. Why do all of them have a wider frame on the right side?

On an actual tablet, it would be a handgrip area, where you could hold it without touching the screen.

Why do these things have them?

[n2doc]

26. For the giant 'on' button, of course! n/t

[Orsino]

24. Must have taken giant tools to install.

Fortunately, this was Fox.

[KamaAina]

25. Garbage in, garbage out

[Turbineguy]

28. It must be the news

I mean it looks like the news. So it must be.

If it were bullshit, it would be brown!

[VanillaRhapsody]

29. There are none so blind....

as those who work for Fox News...apparently

[arcane1]

30. "That man is playing Galaga!"

Seriously, are they trying to out-CNN CNN?

Nothing is more exciting than watching people "sort", I guess

[TeeYiYi]

31. Now all they need...

... is some Great BIG Crayons!



TYY

[ailsagirl]

39. LOL!!!

[BumRushDaShow]

40. Plus they'll need one of these for typos

[BluegrassStateBlues]

32. "Windows-based"

Couldn't wish anything worse on FOX News... out loud.

[Lex]

33. Wow, I'd like to see the EARBUDS for those things!

[A HERETIC I AM]

34. "Fox News. Continuing our tradition of not breaking a single news story since our debut"

Not a one. None. Zip. Zero breaking stories of their own. Nada. Zilch.

[johnd83]

35. I'm getting eye strain just thinking about using one of them

Sitting two feet from a 55 inch flatscreen is a really stupid idea.

[leveymg]

36. I'd call it BATs too. Predict the set will dematerialize within 3 fiscal quarters, as will Shep.

[Oilwellian]

37. Sorry Fox

the youth are so far ahead of your game, it's insulting to attempt to woo them like this. Face it...your viewership is dying off and in a decade or so, your vomit inducing propaganda will be finished. I say good riddance to bad rubbish.

[ailsagirl]

38. They look r-e-a-l-l-y stupid, too!!!