History Main / IgnoredVitalNewsReports

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' MusicalEpisode, which focuses on a hurricane hitting Lawndale, [[{{Workaholic}} Helen]] and [[LovableAlphaBitch Quinn]] dismiss the weather report in the opening song. To her credit, when [[TheSnarkKnight Daria]] reads about it in the paper later, she takes it semi-seriously.
-->'''Helen:''' (''turning on the TV'') ''What's the weather like today?''\\

'''Helen:''' (''turning off the TV'') ''But it's such a lovely day.''\\
'''Quinn:''' ''What does science know?''

* Played with in ''Film/IndependenceDay''. Steven Hiller pays passing attention to the news, and assumes it's about the "small earthquake" he and his wife felt a few minutes prior. It's only when he gets outside and notices everyone hurriedly packing their cars that he takes a good look around and finally sees the several-mile wide spaceship. Clearly Hiller is not a morning person...

* ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'': Shaun practically ignores every unusual event that's happening around him due to being very preoccupied by his miserable personal problems. In fact when he wakes up in the morning he changes the channel every for every news bulletin or boring show. The news bulletins, which include a nature documentary, [[TwoScenesOneDialogue finish each others' sentences]] ([[AstonishinglyAppropriateInterruption even when switching to and from non-news channels]]), all talking about the dead coming back from the grave.

* The lead character in ''Day by Day Armageddon'' initially does this, but starts paying closer attention later on when talks of a "super bug" starts to spread in America. Since the story is framed as the main character's journal, he not only notes the news reports, but considers them important enough to record. But it still serves about the same narrative purpose of having the unfolding ZombieApocalypse set up for the reader while the characters ignore it, since he treats fears about TheVirus dismissively.
* In ''[[Literature/DragonridersOfPern Dragonsdawn]]'', Avril pays no attention to the mayday from Landing, and decides to not figure out why everyone's at landing.

* Minor example in ''Series/{{Cheers}}'': when Lilith announces she's leaving Frasier, the latter threatens to jump off the building above the bar. Meanwhile, inside the bar the gang is obliviously watching TV with Norm channel surfing and happening to glance a report about "some guy threatening to jump off a building". An extremely agitated Cliff then shouts at Norm to go back... to an episode of ''Series/QuincyME''. Only ''then'' does Sam ask to change to the "jumper" and they realize who it is.

* In ''Series/{{ER}}'''s legendary "Hell and High Water" episode, after rescuing a boy from a storm drain, Doug commandeers a news chopper to get him to County Hospital. The reporter films Doug's efforts to keep the boy alive until they get to the hospital … where everyone is playing video game. Not until the emergency is called in does everyone look up and see Doug on the television.
* In a season 3 episode of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', Hiro and Ando are trying to figure out why they have been sent to protect a baby, rather than the adult with the same name that they thought they were sent to protect. While they argue over possible explanations, the baby keeps turning on the TV...which is showing news reports of the adult they thought they were being sent to protect, wearing a suicide-bomber vest, being arrested outside the U.S. Capitol building. Hiro and Ando ignore the TV except to turn it off in annoyance every time the baby turns it on, until they finally unplug the TV in frustration. [[spoiler: Then the baby turns the TV on yet again with his powers, and Hiro and Ando switch to enthusing about the baby having a mutant power, still ignoring the news reports on the TV until the baby's mother comes home and tells them about it]].

* Subverted in the beginning of ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs''. In the prologue, Joel's daughter Sarah wakes up in the middle of the night while Joel is out on a job. She comes across a news report in Joel's bedroom (that is [[DeadlineNews cut off by a gas explosion]]). Joel and Tommy, when they get Sarah and try to flee the outbreak, talk about news reports including how many dead, where it started, and other things. Police cars are also seen speeding past.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': When the Doctor first meets Donna Noble in [[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride "The Runaway Bride"]], she doesn't know about some previous high-profile alien invasions because she was hungover for the [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion Sycorax]], and scuba diving in Spain for [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E12ArmyOfGhosts the]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday Cybermen]]. He's confused as to how she ended up like this.

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[[folder: Film -- Animated]]

[[folder: Film -- Live Action]]

* ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'': Shaun practically ignores every unusual event that's happening around him due to being very preoccupied by his miserable personal problems. In fact when he wakes up in the morning he changes the channel every for every news bulletin or boring show. The news bulletins, which include a nature documentary, [[TwoScenesOneDialogue finish each others' sentences]] ([[AstonishinglyAppropriateInterruption even when switching to and from non-news channels]]), all talking about the dead coming back from the grave.
* ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds'' has a little bit of this in the beginning before the alien invasion.

* In ''Film/{{Apollo 13}}'', Ken Mattingly turns off his television just as the "Special Report" graphic appears. He goes to bed and misses the report on how the space mission is in danger.
** He also takes the phone off the hook when going to bed, forcing someone from NASA to get his landlord to open his apartment to get his help.
--> '''John Young''': Good, you're not dead.
* In ''Film/FrightNight1985'', Charlie and his mother are busy conversing when a news report about a murder plays on the TV. While never explicitly stated as such, the victim was presumably killed by the vampire next door.
* Played with in ''Film/IndependenceDay''. Steven Hiller pays passing attention to the news, and assumes it's about the "small earthquake" he and his wife felt a few minutes prior. It's only when he gets outside and notices everyone hurriedly packing their cars that he takes a good look around and finally sees the several-mile wide spaceship. Clearly Hiller is not a morning person...

* In ''{{Film/Giant}}'' Luz II is parked with Jett Rink and turns off a radio report about Pearl Harbor.
* In ''Film/{{Hunted 1952}}'', the hostess at the Bed & Breakfast turns off the radio while news are announced about the two fugitives she just let in.

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live Action TV]]

* Minor example in ''Series/{{Cheers}}'': when Lilith announces she's leaving Frasier, the latter threatens to jump off the building above the bar. Meanwhile, inside the bar the gang is obliviously watching TV with Norm channel surfing and happening to glance a report about "some guy threatening to jump off a building". An extremely agitated Cliff then shouts at Norm to go back... to an episode of ''Series/QuincyME''. Only ''then'' does Sam ask to change to the "jumper" and they realize who it is.
* On ''Series/TheAmericans'', Leonid Brezhnev, the leader of the Soviet Union, dies, a fact which will have major implications for the main characters, who are Russian spies. The first person to hear the news is their teenage daughter Paige, who listens to the news for a second, then flips to ''Series/TheJeffersons''.

* On ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', the characters turn on Robin's morning talk show but get sidetracked by their conversation and fail to notice her putting out a fire, resuscitating a man after a heart attack and delivering a baby, all on camera.
* In a season 3 episode of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', Hiro and Ando are trying to figure out why they have been sent to protect a baby, rather than the adult with the same name that they thought they were sent to protect. While they argue over possible explanations, the baby keeps turning on the TV...which is showing news reports of the adult they thought they were being sent to protect, wearing a suicide-bomber vest, being arrested outside the U.S. Capitol building. Hiro and Ando ignore the TV except to turn it off in annoyance every time the baby turns it on, until they finally unplug the TV in frustration. [[spoiler: Then the baby turns the TV on yet again with his powers, and Hiro and Ando switch to enthusing about the baby having a mutant power, still ignoring the news reports on the TV until the baby's mother comes home and tells them about it]].
* Patrick in ''Series/DeadSet'' does notice that something is happening on the news, but only worries about whether it'll affect the upcoming broadcast of ''Series/BigBrother''. ([[FromBadToWorse It does.]])
* In ''Series/{{ER}}'''s legendary "Hell and High Water" episode, after rescuing a boy from a storm drain, Doug commandeers a news chopper to get him to County Hospital. The reporter films Doug's efforts to keep the boy alive until they get to the hospital … where everyone is playing video game. Not until the emergency is called in does everyone look up and see Doug on the television.

[[folder: Video Games]]

* In ''VideoGame/NoituLove 2'' we find a man sitting on a park bench calmly reading a newspaper, in the middle of a robot apocalypse that's been happening all game. As a strange inversion it seems that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIMWLSurr6g&list=UU3Q13RAmFVfDkYOWnnqFM2A he might have been better off paying attention to his surroundings instead of reading the news]]
* Subverted in the beginning of ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs''. In the prologue, Joel's daughter Sarah wakes up in the middle of the night while Joel is out on a job. She comes across a news report in Joel's bedroom (that is [[DeadlineNews cut off by a gas explosion]]). Joel and Tommy, when they get Sarah and try to flee the outbreak, talk about news reports including how many dead, where it started, and other things. Police cars are also seen speeding past.

[[folder: Webcomics ]]
* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' [[http://xkcd.com/1387/ suggests]] "To make news stories way more ominous, imagine you're hearing them from a background TV in a movie as the main character leaves."

** When leaving on a family jacht into Finnish wilderness, the child of an extended family is the only one watching television when the news anchor states that the Rash has just killed its first victim and is now considered deadly. He does tell one of the adults: his implied to be hypochondriac and currently very seasick uncle.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' the Professor sets up a curfew for the girls as they have to be in bed by 7:30 PM. When he watches the news it all features Townsville being attacked by everything the girls would handle but tries to ignore all of it because of the curfew. Only when he sees a channel reporting Daylight Savings Time ending and noticing he forgot to set the clocks back does he finally get the message and let them save Townsville.
* The episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE22JokersFavor "Joker's Favor"]] from ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': {{Everyman}} Charlie Collin's car's radio broadcast the last part of the bulletin announcing ''someone'' has escaped and is considered armed and dangerous. Charlie, not being a SuperHero, only cares that this would aggravate the traffic jam he's in and goes in a RantInducingSlight [[TemptingFate on how his life sucks]]. Some minutes later, he will be [[MuggingTheMonster Mugging the Joker]]...

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' MusicalEpisode, which focuses on a hurricane hitting Lawndale, [[{{Workaholic}} Helen]] and [[LovableLibby Quinn]] dismiss the weather report in the opening song. To her credit, when [[TheSnarkKnight Daria]] reads about it in the paper later, she takes it semi-seriously.
-->'''Helen:''' (''turning on the TV'') ''What's the weather like today?''
-->'''News Anchor:''' ''Maybe a hurricane on the way!''
-->'''Helen:''' (''turning off the TV'') ''But it's such a lovely day.''
-->'''Quinn:''' ''What does science know?''
* In the Canadian animated short ''WesternAnimation/TheBigSnit'', a couple is too busy fighting to notice the news reports about nuclear war breaking out.

* In ''[[Literature/{{Pern}} Dragonsdawn]]'', Avril pays no attention to the mayday from Landing, and decides to not figure out why everyone's at landing.

* In ''Dragonsdawn'', Avril pays no attention to the mayday from Landing, and decides to not figure out why everyone's at landing.

* ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'': Shaun practically ignores every unusual event that's happening around him due to being very preoccupied by his miserable personal problems. In fact when he wakes up in the morning he changes the channel every for every news bulletin or boring show. The news bulletins, which include a nature documentary, [[NewsMonopoly finish each others' sentences]] ([[CoincidentalBroadcast even when switching to and from non-news channels]]), all talking about the dead coming back from the grave.

* Minor example in ''Series/{{Cheers}}'': when Lilith announces she's leaving Frasier, the latter threatens to jump off the building above the bar. Meanwhile, inside the bar the gang is obliviously watching TV with Norm channel surfing and happening to glance a report about "some guy threatening to jump off a building". An extremely agitated Cliff then shouts at Norm to go back... to an episode of ''Series/{{Quincy}}''. Only ''then'' does Sam ask to change to the "jumper" and they realize who it is.

** On a ferry from Denmark to Bornholm, a news report talks about Madagascar and Japan also closing its borders, but the hero of this segment is more worried about his cat and losing his job.

* Minor example in ''Series/{{Cheers}}'': when Lilith announces she's leaving Frasier, the latter threatens to jump off the building above the bar. Meanwhile, inside the bar the gang is obliviously watching TV with Norm channel surfing and happening to glance a report about "some guy threatening to jump off a building". An extremely agitated Cliff then shouts at Norm to go back... to an episode of ''{{Quincy}}''. Only ''then'' does Sam ask to change to the "jumper" and they realize who it is.

* In the Canadian animated short ''The Big Snit'', a couple is too busy fighting to notice the news reports about nuclear war breaking out.

In the world of TwentyFourHourNewsNetworks it's hard not to stay up to date with all the world's problems and issues. Well, that's if you're actually paying attention to the news, that is. This trope is when a lot of the impending doom and gloom has been ignored because the characters were going about their lives in a mundane, nonchalant way while ignoring all of the breaking news on the radio and TV. Usually missing out on the early reports of the incoming AlienInvasion, [[RobotWar the rise of the machines]], the coming ZombieApocalypse, or just [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking bad crappy severe weather]]. Which of course would have saved them a lot of trouble later. [[TruthInTelevision But hey, this happens to us all in real life, right?]]

A subtrope of FailedASpotCheck. See also WorstNewsJudgmentEver, when the media misses out on the news, rather than the viewers.

[[folder: Film -- Live Action ]]

[[folder: Film -- Animated]]
* {{Justified}} in ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut,'' which opens with a report about UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein having died. The thing is, that doesn't preclude him from being the BigBad once his lover, [[TheDevilIsALoser Satan]], brings about [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the Apocalypse]].

[[folder: Literature ]]

* The lead character in ''Day by Day Armageddon'' initially does this, but starts paying closer attention later on when talks of a "super bug" starts to spread in America. Since the story is framed as the main character's journal, he not only notes the news reports, but considers them important enough to record. But it still serves about the same narrative purpose of having the unfolding ZombieApocalypse set up for the reader while the characters ignore it, since he treats fears about TheVirus dismissively.
* In ''Dragonsdawn'', Avril pays no attention to the mayday from Landing, and decides to not figure out why everyone's at landing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* In ''{{Giant}}'' Luz II is parked with Jett Rink and turns off a radio report about Pearl Harbor.

* In {{Giant}} Luz II is parked with Jett Rink and turns off a radio report about Pearl Harbor.

[[folder: Film ]]

* Played with in ''Film/IndependenceDay''. Will Smith's character pays passing attention to the news, and assumes it's about the "small earthquake" he and his wife felt a few minutes prior. It's only when he gets outside and notices everyone hurriedly packing their cars that he takes a good look around and finally sees the several-mile wide spaceship. Clearly his character is not a morning person...

* The film adaptation of ''Film/WorldWarZ'' has Brad Pitt's character's family watching a news report about martial law being declared as the disease spreads. They think nothing of it, at least until they're trapped in a city that's being swarmed with zombies.

* In ''Series/MadMen'' episode 3-12, "The Grown-Ups", Harry and Ken are chatting about work, and Ken asks Harry to turn the sound down on the TV. Then the CBS News bulletins about the Kennedy assassination start popping up on the screen, but Harry and Ken don't notice until other Sterling Cooper employees barge into their office to watch the TV.
** Duck turns off the TV in his hotel room on the first report that the president has been "wounded" in order to have sex with [[spoiler:Peggy]]. Afterwards, he mentions that before she came in there was something on the news that's been on his mind, and he turns it back on just in time for the famous confirmation by Walter Cronkite ("From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official..."). [[AvertedTrope On the other hand]], Betty is watching when Jack Ruby kills Lee Harvey Oswald live on camera.

** When leaving on a family jacht into Finnish wilderness, one of the characters leaves the room right before the news anchor states that the Rash has just killed its first victim and is now considered deadly.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' the Professor sets up a curfew for the girls as they have to be in bed by 9:00 PM. When he watches the news it all features Townsville being attacked by everything the girls would handle but tries to ignore all of it because of the curfew. Only when he sees a channel reporting Daylight Savings Time ending and noticing he forgot to set the clocks back does he finally get the message and let them save Townsville.

** A group of people sits during a storm, reading yesterdays newspaper saying that the Rash is becoming a global pandemic and Iceland has just closed its borders to prevent spread. Rather than worry about the Rash, the characters discuss Iceland and the storm outside - though granted, the Rash is not yet a terminal disease.

* Patrick in ''DeadSet'' does notice that something is happening on the news, but only worries about whether it'll affect the upcoming broadcast of ''BigBrother''. ([[FromBadToWorse It does.]])
* In {{ER}}'s legendary "Hell and High Water" episode, after rescuing a boy from a storm drain, Doug commandeers a news chopper to get him to County Hospital. The reporter films Doug's efforts to keep the boy alive until they get to the hospital … where everyone is playing video game. Not until the emergency is called in does everyone look up and see Doug on the television.

* In "Dragonsdawn", Avril pays no attention to the mayday from Landing, and decides to not figure out why everyone's at landing.

* ''{{xkcd}}'' [[http://xkcd.com/1387/ suggests]] "To make news stories way more ominous, imagine you're hearing them from a background TV in a movie as the main character leaves."