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Need something shot, produced, edited, reported, uplinked/downlinked in SoCal? <---CLICK THRU JDnewsie Productions: 818.766.7122 jdnewsie@aol.com www.jdnewsie.com |
A media critique... and then some! Banned in Beijing, Kabul, and at KCAL TV.
Tuesday Letters - Hal Eisner comments on Steve Edwards, and an ambulance medic says it is impossible to die on the way to the hospital. Inside LA TV - A couple KNBC insiders comment on Nancy Bauer Gonzales' leaving, and they have different points of view. Links to Recent Issues 08-20-01 Monday's OTR 08-22-01 Wednesday's OTR 08-24-01 Friday's OTR If you'd like to send a contribution to help keep OTR going, you can send ten dollars to Ron Fineman, PO Box 42364, Bakersfield, CA 93384 Or you can send $ on-line. Just click on the PayPal Logo.
Your help is appreciated! |
To get on the OTR email reminder list, email me at BRUIN74@aol.com. |
ROLLER COASTER MEDIA DAY
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One of the reasons I believe it's a bad idea for TV stations to hype new amusement park rides became apparent last Friday. First of all, I don't think it should an automatic that every time Magic Mountain or Disneyland has a new attraction, that TV crews should flock there for a free ride. And suppose real news breaks out; how well will that be handled when the reporter is there to promote the amusement park? To a small degree, that's what happened on Friday.
Let's have a look at Garth Kemp's story on Friday about a new roller coaster ride at Magic Mountain. I'm afraid his story about this new Deju Vu roller coaster was lacking in a couple of ways. First, in his story Kemp said "It's the world's tallest, fastest suspended looping boomerang roller coaster, and it's called Deja Vu." Immediately following that, Magic Mountain's Andy Gallardo said "It's the tallest, fastest suspended, looping boomerang roller coaster in the entire world." Talk about a redundant story! Even TV commercials give you a little space before they hit you again with their slogan.
But the bigger problem was the way Kemp handled it when the roller coaster stalled. Kemp reported that an eyewitness said it stalled for about two minutes, and he showed video of the stall. He then reported "as usual, on the first day of any ride, a few bugs needed to be worked out." That was followed by a bite from Gallardo saying "little opening day glitches. But everything is back to normal now."
So what are they saying? Is it normal for a roller coaster to stall on opening day? And why did it stall? Kemp never said. I don't know if he even asked. My impression was that he was being apologetic for Magic Mountain, when he should've been asking more questions.
I called up Magic Mountain today to see if I could learn a little more about what happened, and I spoke with Aimee Means in their marketing department. She said that that the ride stalled for only a minute, but she didn't know why that happened. She said it could've had a number of causes. At first her attitude on the phone seemed to be consistent with what Kemp and Gallardo said. She said such thing are bound to happen with so many people there and so much going on. But I asked, do these things normally happen on opening day? She said no, they don't. She said problems are bound to happen over the life of the roller coaster. She also said that a coaster goes through months of testing before it goes into public use. So now I had learned that it was not typical to have such an opening day glitch. ...a different message than I got on KABC. Even though no one was hurt, and I'm told the problem didn't happen again, shouldn't we have been told why it happened, or least been given the impression that the question was asked.
I don't think it is surprising to get different messages from Magic Mountain on this. One the one hand, they don't want the stall on their new ride to be a big deal. But if it is "usual" to having opening day bugs on new rides, then what does that say for their testing process?
Just so I am completely clear.... I'm not saying the ride isn't safe. I am saying that even on the first day of a ride, people should not expect a roller coaster to stall, even for a minute. The coverage on KABC makes you wonder if TV reporters are prepared to get serious on a story which starts out as a fluff piece. I think their viewers deserved much better than what they got.
ADDING PAYPAL FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE
I was advised by a couple of readers that it would be much easier for a lot of people who want contribute to OTR if I could let you do it online. So I've added PayPal. If you'd like to help out that way, you can now click on the PayPal logo, which I'll keep at the top of the page on a permanent basis.
We have a number of new voluntary subscribers I'd like to thank for contributing.....Judy Jack (Upland), Rhys Talbot (Glendora), Ron & Judy Heaton (Mohave Valley, Arizona), Jake Downey (Studio City), Bill Vigus (St George Utah), Jeff Presscott (La Jolla), Carl Nicita (Bakersfield), Barry Soben (Los Angeles), John Sechini, and one media member who asked for anonymity. I especially want to thank Ron and Judy Heaton who were good enough send more than 10 dollars, and Jake Downey who I feel already did his part to help by buying ad space here. Many thanks to all of you!
HOW ABOUT A LITTLE FEELING?
I was watching a story this weekend on KCBS about the memorial service for a college girl who'd been murdered. Obviously, a sad story. I was just really taken by the cold reading of her copy by reporter Angela Black. I'm definitely not one for over-emotional story telling, but this was pretty bad. It sounded like she was in a rush to get through reading her copy. It really sounded like someone reading. You certainly had the feeling that this reporter would rather have been doing something else. There is really no excuse for that to have made it on the air.
IS THAT WHAT YOU WEAR TO A MEMORIAL SERVICE?
To see the friends of Christine Burmeister wearing black at her memorial service is certainly no surprise. But I thought it was weird to see several of her college friends wearing such low cut black dresses. It looked like they were going to a cocktail party. Cleavage at a funeral? Are these kids clueless, or is the right clothing for the right occasion something from out of the past?
OVERKILL WINS AGAIN
Why can't TV news report on a spot news story, and move on! You know, tell the viewers what is going on, then cover other news. If something new comes up in the spot news story, you can come back, can't you? At 2pm, KCAL devoted almost all of the first 35 minutes of its newscast to a fire. About 20 minutes in, they covered the death of a well known singer who died yesterday in a plane crash. Then it was back to the fire. Yes, this one was near homes, and apparently one garage or shed had burned down. I certainly don't object to covering it, or leading with it. But does it really warrant that much air time? Are viewers all over Southern California going to be riveted to 150 to 200 acres at the North end of LA County? Meantime, a story which I think should've been everyone's lead today, came at 2:40 in KCAL's hour of news. What story? Please, read on.
FORMER COUNCILMAN WHO TOOK BRIBES GETS PROBATION
Richard Alatorre admitted to taking nearly 42 thousand dollars in bribes as an LA City Councilman and member of the MTA board. Today he was sentenced to probation! As KCAL's Dave Bryan pointed out....it was a pretty good deal for Alatorre, considering we have a justice system where a three-striker can get life for stealing a piece of pizza. I compliment Bryan for doing a good job on his story, making a very valid point that needs to be made, without actually saying it. This crook got off too easy!
What message does this send to other elected officials? Go ahead and take bribes, screw the voters. You don't have to worry about jail or prison. Alatorre ended up pleading to income tax evasion, and will have to pay back money he owes to the government. Big deal. The prosecutor said the evidence was circumstantial and suggested that witnesses would've been friends of Alatorre, and therefore would've been hostile to the prosecution. So I suppose if you're an elected official who only takes bribes from friends, you don't have to worry about prison. She suggested this was a good deal, and after all, Alatorre is now an admitted felon. I don't buy it. This guy should've been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This should've gone to trial. He should be going to prison. Just as people were up in arms when OJ got off, they should be mad about this too. While KNBC reported that more charges could still be brought against Alatorre, it was a dark day for justice in Los Angeles today. But between all of the coverage of a fire, and a singer whose death was reported yesterday, TV viewers might not realize the injustice happened at all. That makes two injustices.
Am I wrong? Am I missing something? You tell me. Please head to the poll section on the menu. If you want more detail about his case, I'm sure you can find more tomorrow by going to the LA Times website...www.latimes.com.
WHICH IS IT?
I will admit to not having heard of Aaliyah, so I'm not sure how big of a story her death is to the average LA TV viewer. But I did find it curious that KNBC's Gordon Tokumatsu used two conflicted descriptions of her. In one part of his story, he called her a superstar. Later he used the term I've heard everyone else use...a rising star. Well it can't be both. If you are a superstar, then your star has already risen. This may seem minor to you, but to me it is indicative of how easy it seems to be for reporters to throw around adjectives and descriptions, which may not always be accurate.
CONDIT COVERAGE
KABC was the only media outlet that I heard say it like this....on their 11pm news after the Condit interview, Marc Brown said that for the first time, Gary Condit had admitted to a relationship with Chandra Levy. Not true. Right from the start, he said they were good friends. Now maybe I heard wrong, but on their 6pm news, after the interview was over, but before it aired, I thought I heard KABC report that Condit had finally admitted to the affair. Interestingly, on KTLA's news that night, Ron Olsen was reporting that Condit had denied having the affair. It's like Condit's answers were a Rorschach test for reporters. Listen to the man dodge the question, and tell us what he really said.
I do want to give credit to John North's story. He mentioned that Condit had supported putting The Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. It would appear to be a bit of hypocrisy which not many people have reported. Good for North. Also, kudos to Tim Russert for 'taking no prisoners' in his interview with Abbe Lowell on Meet the Press. At one point, Lowell complained that Russert was yelling at him. "If you want to keep yelling at me.... etc" It was a very different Lowell than the one who arrogantly scolded the news media during his news conference announcing the Condit lie detector test. I hope you caught the interview. It was more proof that Russert is one of the best, if not THE best interviewer on television.
By the way...with the awesome 14 rating that KABC got for their 11pm newscast on Thursday Night, I'm sure they have no regrets. But speaking as a viewer, doing the entire newscast of only Gary Condit was just too much. I could've done without the story with the guy who talks about body language. I don't think it added much. But it did help them do all-Condit...and clearly that was the goal of the evening.
In doing her Condit story for KCBS, I don't recall Jennifer Sabih mentioning that the Condit interview was on ABC (which KNBC's Conan Nonlan did say the next day), but she did say that Chung used to be a CBS2 anchor. And the relevance of that fact was what?
READERS NOT IMPRESSED WITH CONDIT
| After the Chung interview, describe your feelings about Gary Condit | ||||
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votes | percent | ||
1.) More positive |
0 | 0% | ||
2.) More negative |
53 | 74% | ||
3.) About the same |
19 | 26% | ||
Of all our polls, I don't recall ever seeing something get zero votes.
| How would you describe Connie Chung's handling of the Condit interview? | ||||
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votes | percent | ||
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1.) Too soft |
19 | 26% | ||
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2.) Too tough |
2 | 3% | ||
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3.) About right |
51 | 71% | ||
I'm surprised to see so many folks think Chung was too soft. As you know, I'm with the majority on this one.
| Do you believe that Mike Tyson raped Arlene Moorman? | ||||
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votes | percent | ||
|
1.) Yes |
18 | 18% | ||
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2.) No |
42 | 42% | ||
|
3.) Undecided |
40 | 40% | ||
THE WAY SHE TALKS
Sometimes its hard not to notice how much trouble KCOP anchor Lauren Sanchez has with pronouncing simple words and places. For example, in one newscast last week...she pronounced "horror" as "whore", "Tarzana" as "Tarzano" and "September" as "Sextember". Of course the last error might well have been a preview of many of the stories we'll see on KCOP next month. In fact, if September were a ratings month, I think you could count on it.
IRONY, YES!
Patrick Healy reported that "ironically" a fire may've started from a spark during brush clearance. It is a pleasure to hear a reporter actually use "ironically" correctly!
BROADCASTEZE VIOLATION OF THE WEEK
Who: Various
Where: Various
What: "claimed the life"
I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that in actual conversation. Have you?
Put your hand on the monitor and count to three, one, two, three....HEAL!!
YOUR OPINIONS
They are always welcome. You can reach me at BRUIN74@aol.com. Unless you say otherwise, I will assume your comments are for publication.
OTR ON THE ROAD
As this web site evolves, it seemed like a good idea to offer my services for speaking engagements at colleges, service clubs or anyone else interested in the OTR gospel. Of course one of the great advantage to speaking in person is that you get far few typos. If you check the OTR On the Road page on the menu (Netscape users CAN now access it too), you can see learn more. You can also read what some well known OTR readers have to say about this web site. If you are interested, you can email to OTROnTheRoad@aol.com.
Ron's disclaimer: Like all reporters I have opinions. I do the best I can to make sure that nothing I say here has any effect on my objectivity in covering stories.
OTR's main page IS PUBLISHED MONDAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY. Letters are added Tuesday - Friday.
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