Pranking Local TV News

If you think you'll poke your eyes out if you see one more house fire or minor traffic accident on your local TV news broadcast, you're not alone. A pranskter group called Newsbreakers.org has been "hacking" live news reports with bizarre disruptions. Their slogan: "When news breaks, we bust it!"

One of the group's favorite tactics is to dress up as wacky characters and disrupt live TV reports. Aside from being funny and irreverent (they often disrupt news stories involving murders and other serious topics), the group believes it is making an important statement about the irrelevance of modern TV news.

"Television news today is a voyeur's fantasy," says Newsbreakers founder Chris Landon. "It has shifted from the role of challenging those in power to exploiting the weak, or those involved in personal tragedy... TV defines reality for a lot of people ... We just want to startle them enough to disrupt that view of reality."

Until the Newsbreakers come to your town, you can watch video clips of their exploits on their website.

Sources: The Observer, post.thing.net