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

[onehandle]

Last edited Mon Oct 7, 2013, 05:00 PM - Edit history (1)

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 "non linear" — 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.

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

Using cutting edge computer programs on 55-inch tablets Fox News' information specialists can view 4 tweets at a time



https://twitter.com/nostrich/status/387262249255329792

[TlalocW]

1. When you said tablets

I was thinking, "What, like Moses brought down from God? Are there conservative commandments on them?"

TlalocW

[kestrel91316]

2. That man has an oversized head.

[Politicalboi]

3. Wow, 4 tweets at a time

What they should do is put up a huge monitor in a parking lot with speakers and call it a Drive To. Perhaps we will be able to read 6 tweets at a time. What an age we live in.

[jbond56]

4. needs a cup holder. /nt

[JHB]

7. Definitely needs those more than the handgrips they do have

Because if those aren't handgrips, what's the purpose of the extra-large frame-space on the right side of all of those screens?

[nolabear]

5. I thought they fired him.

The set just looks like a desperate attempt to prove they're relevant and on top of things, rather than the truth, that their mission comes from Murdoch and his gnomes.

[KansDem]

6. Get one with a green screen and lay it flat...

Then you can shoot pool on it!

[Wait Wut]

8. ?

This is what happens when a station suffers from 'news envy'. The figure you won't notice how small their content is if they have REALLY BIG monitors!!!

[JPZenger]

9. ... and here's the transporter room

... and here are the screens we used to hack into the phones of kidnap victims and to pay off British cops for inside information.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. We'll making maps on that surface

Could be fun.

They are actually competing with CNN

[LiberalFighter]

11. What they are saying is that they have too much time on their hand.

[hunter]

12. GAWD. Idiocracy.

Any old school news reporter with a cigarette hanging from his lips, a pen in one hand, a notebook in the other, could blow these fools out of the water.

It's a sad world we are living in.

[IcyPeas]

13. which one generates the talking points lies?

[pinboy3niner]

14. That's what the BATS are for

With them now in-house, the batshit is completely self-sustaining!

[denverbill]

15. Those would be awesome for playing Angry Birds.n/t

[dembotoz]

16. for old white folks with bad eyes

[tanyev]

17. Ooh, now all cool kids are going to start watching Fox News.

[greytdemocrat]

18. Big Deal...

I thought Shep died or something. He's back with BAT's!!!!

[kentauros]

19. Someone needs to hang a T-square and a 30-60-90 triangle

on one of those drafting tables, er, "BATs" in the background

[Arkana]

20. You say ridiculous, I say fucking awesome.

If only they were being used for good rather than evil.

[Agschmid]

21. Oh this is a real story...