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!!"