To use a national or international
news event to justify a local connection, in order to exploit a
bigger story and air it on a local station as if it were
news.
"Hey! We have to LOCALIZE this airplane
crash. Go find some relatives of any airline
crash victims who live nearby, and exploit their grief under the ruse of "humanizing the victims", in order to put yourself into the national story. That will get some eyeballs tonight at
six and eleven!!"