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A media critique... and then some!
A new edition of You Won't Believe News is up Thursday Letters are up Inside LA TV - Anchor changes at KABC, other changes at KCOP, and comments on reporters interviewing reporters. Coming Friday - Part 2 with Bill Gephardt....and OTR Audio featuring Peter Fonda. Links to Recent Issues 7-29-02 Monday's OTR 7-26-02 Friday's OTR If you'd like to send a contribution to help keep OTR going, you can send 15 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. |
KNBC SHINES ON LIVE POPE COVERAGE
At 6pm last night, KABC devoted their entire newscast
to the Pope's live arrival in Mexico. KNBC did almost the same, picking
it up a couple of minutes after six. First let me suggest this was
way overdone. We're talking about a ceremony entirely in Spanish, with
just the usual platitudes from President Vicente Fox and the Pope. While I'm
sure many Catholic viewers were interested, I'd suggest there wasn't any real
news being made. In fact, I'd like to see either of those stations
devote a half hour to the story of the victims of priest sex abuse, a story
which has been called the biggest scandal in the history of the church in
North America.
Anyway, just judging the coverage for what it was, KNBC was
much more impressive (those were the only two stations I saw at 6pm) than KABC.
And the main reason is David Cruz. When Fox started speaking, Cruz was
able to provide what sounded like a smooth and full translation.
While that was going on, KABC anchors Marc Brown and Michelle Tuzee were
talking with Sid Garcia, who was there in Mexico. Garcia talked about
the controversy of how the church draws the picture of Juan Diego like a
European, while many down there feel he should be drawn darker, since he was
an indigenous Mexican. In fact Garcia said that more people were buying
pictures of Juan Diego with the darker skin, than the ones that the church
were selling. Interesting stuff to be sure. But what about President
Fox?
I can only guess that the folks in the KABC newsroom were
watching KNBC, because suddenly (at about 6:15) the voice of Ellen Leyva
was heard, brought in to translate. She immediately explained that she
could understand Spanish better than she could speak it...but let me tell you,
she's no David Cruz. At one point she said she was "a little
rusty." Later on, when the Pope was speaking Spanish, there were
times when Leyva could only summarize what he was talking about, like
"he's speaking of the canonization of Juan Diego." It got so bad
that I would estimate KABC went at least one, maybe two minutes of the Pope
speaking in Spanish with no translation. Great TV, huh? Meantime at
KNBC, it
didn't sound like Cruz missed a beat.
I'm sure Leyva did the best she could, suddenly being
thrown in to translate. And credit to Mark Brown, who used his high
school and college Spanish, to do some translation too. For a non-native
speaker, I thought he did pretty well.
But really, shouldn't a station that sends a reporter to
Mexico and promotes it, be better prepared? Did they have no idea the
Pope would be landing during the news? And did they not realize they'd be
speaking Spanish there? Does KABC have access to no one who is fluent in
Spanish? And if you're not prepared, maybe you should to back
to regular news. KNBC put them to
shame.
Too bad President Fox or the Pope didn't have anything
newsworthy to say.
A SPOOKY PHOTO
I don't know what is over the left shoulder of Alejandro
Avila, but it looks to me like a snake, or a little monster of some type, with
its mouth open. It may really be something quite benign...but it sure looks
spooky to me, and probably quite appropriate.
OVER-REACTING
When word was out about a missing girl in Missouri last
week, the cable news channels were all over it. As we know, the story
ended tragically. But journalistically, did it deserve the level of national
attention it got that day?
While this child was murdered, just like Samantha Runnion,
the circumstances were quite different. The alleged killer-- a homeless man --
had spent the night in the same house as the little girl, and had stayed up
the night before drinking with her father. Not exactly the same as a
girl being snatched off the street by a perfect stranger. Add it's
certainly not a man breaking into a house and kidnapping a girl at gunpoint.
If this story happened three months ago, it would have
gotten far less national attention. I highly doubt any local station would
have led with it. But like the shark attacks of last year, the stories
tend to feed on themselves. As one expert pointed out, stranger
abductions are down this year compared to last. And credit to one local
reporter, and I don't recall which one, who pointed out that fact to a mother
in a story he was doing. That still didn't make her feel any better.
So I would suggest that local and cable channels get a
grip, and not to make every local tragedy into a national one. Each case is a
judgment call, and I think in the Missouri case, they made the wrong one.
SO THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED!
It was an unusual looking segment on KTLA's news last
Friday Night, because we never saw any of the anchors. Marta Waller did
her health segment, but was not introduced, and did not sign off with her
name. The oddest part came when Waller started reading a story live, and then
after a few words, they dumped out and ran a piece she'd already taped. After
they came back from their commercial break, Hal Fishman explained. Their
studio lights had gone out, but now they were working with a back-up
system. Of course that explained why we never saw any of the anchors for
that segment. But it doesn't explain why they cut off Marta live, to give us
Marta on tape. I will just guess that with a minor panic over going dark, that
was just one of those things that went wrong along the way.
JUST CALL THEM SYBIL
In promoting a live appearance, KTLA's Mindy Burbano said
"Rick Dees, myself, and multiple personalities from all the Clear Channel
Stations" will be there. I know some people think Clear Channel is
a crazy outfit, but perhaps their critics haven't looked at it from the proper
psychological perspective. Out of the mouths of entertainment reporters....
YOU CAN TELL THE ANGELS ARE CATCHING
ON....
Brooks of SportsbyBrooks.com, passed along the following to
me...
Rick Kissell of VARIETY reports that KCAL-TV's broadcast of
Friday's Angels-Mariners game outrated KCOP-UPN's broadcast of Dodgers-Giants,
marking the first time "in the six years that KCAL has carried Angels
baseball that one of its games topped the rating for an over-the-air broadcast
of a Dodgers game in head-to-head competition." KCAL's game drew a 2.9/6,
26% ahead of the 2.3/4 KCOP earned. Meanwhile, the Angels are averaging a 2.3
rating on KCAL, up 53% from last year.
YOU LISTEN - YOU DECIDE
I'm running this again, because I want to see if we can get
more people voting on what they thought of the piece discussed below. (So far
we've got about 25 votes).
As you may've heard, KFI talk show hosts John &
Ken really hammered KTLA reporter Andre Moreau for his report on Governor
Davis signing the bill designed to reduce global warming by reducing carbon
dioxide emissions in cars and SUVs. Among their complaints is that he never
mentioned that California vehicles are responsible for just a miniscule amount
of global CO2 emissions. They felt that the story lacked balance and
came across more as a Davis press release.
Moreau sent me the follow note: "first off
-- those two have a clear agenda and that's to make anybody who does not agree
with them -- on the wrong side. I'm not saying my report was the best of
earth, but given the circumstances I had to work with - I certainly had
those for and against and was not portrayed as a grand-stander (as they do).
Seems like most people would be aware that we're supposed to report --
not pontificate. They kept me on 45 minutes, their producer told me off
air I was doing a great job "sparring" with them and that I was
overqualified to work for KFI.
Anyway, I understand the story, but refused to get sucked into their game. This past year, they ripped a national NBC reporter Chip Reid for his stance --- again saying he was too handsome -- which is something I heard over and over."
Anyway, I understand the story, but refused to get sucked into their game. This past year, they ripped a national NBC reporter Chip Reid for his stance --- again saying he was too handsome -- which is something I heard over and over."
Moreau said that the law won't take effect until 2009, but
I think he should also have included is that it is up to the state air
resources board to make rules to comply with the law, and so no one can be
sure just what rules they'll push forward.
Anyway, with that background....please click on the
following link. After listening, please answer the poll on whether you think
Moreau was fair to both sides.
Click HERE to listen to Moreau's report
Would you say Moreau's report was fair? Click on the appropriate link, and then hit "send."
REMINDS ME OF AN OLD RIDDLE
Remember the riddle, if a plane crashes on the border of
Mexico and the US, where would they bury the survivors? Well, it sounded
like ABC reporter Monica Shuman also has trouble understanding with what a
survivor is. That plane which crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11 crashed not too
far from where those miners were trapped last week. Shuman reported that the
"survivors" of that flight sent a note of encouragement for those
miners. Of course there were NO survivors on that flight. I suppose she
meant relatives of those who died in the crash. Yes, I know it is often said
the dead are survived by so-and-so. But this case, if would make more sense to
say "relatives of the victims."
GO FETCH
Unless you're dealing with a dog, or Jack & Jill,
"fetch" is just not conversational, at least not here in
America. But it seems nearly every time there is a story about an
auction - as I heard Kelly Mack read this morning - the anchor tells us that
whatever-it-is "fetched" a certain amount of money. Sounds
like a chronic case of broadcasteze. If possible, I'd like to fetch a
cure.
MISPRONUNCIATION OF THE WEEK
Who: Lora McLaughlin
Where: KCAL
What : Zacharias Moussaoui
She pronounced the last name with the accent on the first
syllable. While I've heard two distinct pronunciations on the first name from
various broadcasters, this was the first time I can recall hearing the last
name said like that. Everyone else I've heard puts the accent on the second
syllable.
Put your hand on the monitor and count to three....one,
two, three.....HEAL!!
YOUR OPINIONS
They are always welcome. Please include your first and last name. You can reach me at BRUIN74@aol.com. Unless you say otherwise, I will assume your comments are for publication.
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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