Local news at least has one advantage over cable news; it only runs for a few hours a day so they aren't trying to stretch everything out to fill a full 24/7 schedule. But even so it's still crap, I don't watch local TV news either. The only TV news I've ever considered to be worth a damn was News Hour with Jim Lehrer, which was only an hour a day. Even in that case, I might just have rose-tinted glasses on.
It really depends who owns the station. I've seen great work from Nexstar stations. So far, the stories I've seen from their approach to cable news, NewsNation aren't bad. They might get more CNN like as they approach 24 hour coverage.
Edit: I work for a competitor to Nexstar who overall does very good work but I wouldn't recommend to avoid a conflict of interest.