Consolidation in Rockford

Starting in September, two Rockford stations will merge newsrooms, and it will be called “Rockford News First.”

Gray’s WREX and WIFR tried to feed this line to viewers on social media: “This September, WIFR and WREX will unify under a new brand: Rockford News First - a bold step that highlights local news programming that puts viewers, our communities, and our region first.”

Of course, even the viewers don’t buy what they are trying to sell. People have watched media companies continue to cut, and they see this move for what it is. It’s all about saving money and has absolutely nothing to do with “…local news programming that puts viewers, our communities, and our region first.”

Consolidating newsrooms is bad, and bullshitting your viewers makes it even worse.