Running over "the man on the street"

I was watching the 10 O'Clock News (bet they stayed up all night working on that title) on Channel 2 tonight, and they ran a story on the efforts to stem the Light brown apple moth tide that's currently gripping the Bay Area in mortal fear. The latest cockamamie scheme involves releasing some tiny stingless wasp that lays its eggs inside the moth's eggs, and then the larva eats its way out in some kind of nightmarish H. R. Giger tableau. I don't know how effective it'll be, but it gets an "A" for awesomeness in my book.

The report mostly consisted of scientists and assorted dueling experts giving the pros and cons of the plan. No problem there. But like all sorts of intricate news stories, they felt they had to lead it off by getting the reaction of some "man on the street"; in this case, a dorky jogger in Golden Gate Park. His feelings on this development were (and I'm only paraphrasing the uninteresting parts here): "Well, I'm glad they're not releasing something big, like...uh...like a wombat."

Seriously. "Wombat" was the first scary animal that popped into this dude's head. In the video, you could see the wheels turning while he was talking, trying to think of something suitably frightening and ecosystem-ravaging. "Hmm, 'grizzly bear' would sound too silly. Werewolves? No, they don't exist. What was the name of that bat species that only eats Light brown apple moths? Shit, it was just on Final Jeopardy the other night." And "wombat" is what came out of that half-second of fevered thought.

For those who, like myself, thought wombats were some sort of Dr. Seuss creation, this is what one looks like:

Truly a terror to behold.

Anyway, I'm probably being too hard on the guy. He was just minding his own business, trying to get some early morning exercise, when some camera crew stuck a mic in his face and started asking him questions about complex environmental issues that ACTUAL SCIENTISTS CAN'T EVEN AGREE ON.

Why do local news producers think we need "man on the street" reactions to every possible news story? Do they really think I won't be able to sleep at night not knowing what Tom in Walnut Creek thinks about Barack Obama's crazy pastor, or what Annette in Burlingame thinks about possible changes in bankruptcy laws? "Fuck off, guy from U.S. News & World Report, I wanna know what sweatpant-clad mallwalkers think about Kosovo!"

Are they panning for gold, hoping to randomly stumble across some Nobel Prize winner who just happens to be in the same Starbucks as the news crew at lunchtime, or do they really think we can't digest complex issues without hearing from Dick in Hayward?

EDIT: You can view the news clip here. I got a few bits wrong though in my recollection: the MOTS interview was done at sunset, and he said "crazy animal". Somehow that's even funnier. But yeah, mea fucking culpa. Never let it be said our fact-checkers aren't working overtime here at the Machine.