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A media critique... and then some!
“Ron Fineman
holds a mirror to the media and the reflection is pointed, on
the mark, and very often, very funny. As a worker in the
broadcast news biz, he knows what he's talking about and he
should get a Nobel prize for his attempts to eradicate the
dreaded news cliché.” Steve Edwards - LA News Veteran - Anchor Good Day LA, Fox 11, Los Angeles |
If you'd like to know when each issue is
ready, and receive email news updates which occur between
issues...
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FUKUZAKI NOW SAYS HE WAS APPROACHED BY KCBS GM
After telling OTR that he was not approached by Don Corsini to go to KCBS, KABC sports anchor Rob Fukuzaki has revised that. For the following to make complete sense, you may want to click over to Inside LA TV. After Monday's issue, Fukuzaki sent me the following email:
Just to set the record straight, Mr. Corsini didn't call me at home, he left me a voicemail at work. With all due respect to Mr. Corsini, I have no idea how that call got out, because I didn't tell anyone here at the station just family members because I was flattered that he showed interest. On top of that, Arnie and I had been talking about setting up a new deal for months now and the Corsini call had nothing to do with re-doing a new deal and had no influence what's so ever in what you and some perceive as "leverage," since I still had a good amount of time left on my current contract.
What you are reading into the chronological order of events with Jim Hill and myself is pure coincidence. I am extremely happy here at ABC-7 and am only grateful to Cheryl Fair and Arnie Kleiner who have provided me a tremendous opportunity to work at the best shop in town for 11 years and hopefully another seven, if you don't screw it up for me…..just kidding :)
Sincerely,
Rob Fukuzaki
STATIONS SHOULD GET REAL WITH THEIR CHASE POLICY
Three stations showed police shoot to death a robber/rapist and car thief on live TV on Wednesday. As usual there was a certain amount of hand wringing over this.
I believe that viewers know what could happen at the end of a live chase, which is why people watch. This is no secret. And so it is disingenuous for stations to show a live chase and shooting, and then act like it is such a bad thing to show that shooting on live TV. And further, unless it is a terribly gory scene, I see no reason not to replay the actual shooting. Viewers who don't want to watch can turn the channel. I'm guessing most people, who are watching the chase in the first place, would not change the channel. Someone needs to tell the truth here!
(Hal Fishman made about the same point in a commentary last night, which I believe contrasts from the view his boss, news director Jeff Wald. Good for Hal!)
When stations replayed the event during the five and six pm news, they could have shown more, without showing the bad guy getting shot, but they didn't.
For example this is where KNBC stopped during their replay during the five, and where KABC stopped during their six. Maybe this was just a matter of being conservative in their editing as they rushed to get it on the air. But it sure doesn't help in complete story telling. KABC's Marc Brown said they couldn't tell "whether he was trying to reach in for yet another gun into his waste band." Video shown later showed that he was getting a gun from his pocket.
On KCBS at 6pm, Ann Martin said it looked like he had a gun in his hand (I assume she meant the first gun), and Welk said "We believe that he did have a gun, although again, very difficult to see from the chopper. It was one of those situations Ann where we don’t want to take a chance and show you something too graphic. So at that point we started our pull back, and not to show too close a shot."
Welk was honestly stating the policy that all LA TV stations seem to have, which I believe sacrifices one of the duties of the news media, which is to accurately record a news event. As it happens the video shot by the various news choppers pretty clearly showed a gun. But what if there was a controversy about that? Or what if there was a question about where the gun was when police shot this guy? A TV news chopper would be in the position to capture the truth, which benefits everyone. But when they pull out to protect some alleged viewer sensibility, they are doing more harm than good.
I go back to a situation that happened - on tape - when I was news director in Bakersfield. A Sheriff's deputy shot dead a female driver who had a gun. Lucky for the Sheriff's Department, and our viewers, we were able to show that this woman pointed the gun toward the deputies. Had local news photographers pulled away (again, this was not live, so I see the distinction), it would have been an even more controversial shooting than it was. So yes, we showed this woman shot to death on the news, and it helped in letting everyone learn the truth. Anyone who didn't want to watch, had the opportunity to change the channel.
NIGHTTIME NEWSCAST COVERAGE - KCBS THE WORST
The key to this story was of course the video of the shooting. Even without showing the part where the chasee got shot, there was enough video to show that this guy had two guns...that police had to shoot him, even after he dropped his first one. But some stations did a better job in showing that to the viewers than others. And only one station, KCBS at 11pm, didn't even tell viewers that the guy had a second gun. (I'm afraid Juan Fernandez strikes again).
I like the job Leo Stallworth's story did with the video.
We see this guy running and see that the cops fired at him, wounding him....we see him drop his gun... we see where the gun goes...and in the last still, we see him reaching to pull out a second gun. That is where the video ends, which is where the cops shot him again, this time fatally.
KTTV also did a good job with the video.
Before going to Al Naipo's package, they wasted no time, starting the newscast with the above video with a voiceover by John Beard. They used slow motion and froze the video at both of the points above. Naipo also showed the video.
KNBC was a little odd. Beverly White used a sound bite from police which told us that the man tried to pull a second gun, but her story didn't show that part, stopping short. Yet in the pre-show tease video, they did show that part of the video. Must have a lack of organization somewhere in there, because obviously, that makes no sense.
Walter Richards' story on KTLA got out of the video just before he reached for the second gun. Why? Who knows?
On KCBS Juan Fernandez didn't show him reaching for the gun, and as I said above, he's the only TV reporter who didn't report on that. That is an important part of this story, and just how he could miss it is beyond me.
A SOUND BITE WE DIDN'T NEED
Back to Stallworth's story. He used a totally useless sound bite at the end, which naturally involved viewers hearing him ask a question. I don't know if it is ego or laziness that causes him to keep doing this in his various stories. I say laziness, because it is a lot easier to throw up a little q & a in your package, than to write a good set-up line to the sound bite. In this case, Stallworth first used a sound bite from a woman who told how she hid from the bullets. That was followed by this little exchange with a second woman:
Stallworth:“You heard what?”
Witness: “Like ten gun shots.”
Stallworth: “You heard ten gun shots.”
Witness: “Yeah.”
It's quite clear that the police shot and killed this man. There is nothing noteworthy about someone having heard ten shots. And further, we get to hear Stallworth needlessly repeat what she said. Someone in management at KABC really needs to talk to this guy.
WHY DOES THE ETHNICITY MATTER?
Both Leo Stallworth and Juan Fernandez found it relevant to tell viewers that the man killed by police was an Hispanic man. Actually, in their best cop-talk broadcasteze, they said he was an "Hispanic male" in his 30s. In fact, yesterday Bill O'Reilly began the story by telling his audience that it was an Hispanic male. Since there is no reason to believe that his ethnicity had anything to do with the shooting, there was no reason to mention it.
Neither Beverly White, Walter Richards nor Al Naipo reported on his ethnicity.
AN OVERBLOWN SIDEBAR
After Juan Fernandez's story at 11pm, KCBS gave us a sidebar by Michele Gile. Normally she is a solid reporter...but not this time. Gile interviewed the man who pulled his daughter aside when the car being chased appeared to be heading toward her. The story made it sound like he saved her life, but the video showed otherwise. The father told Gile that when he grabbed his daughter "she was frozen, she had her hands up to her face." However, the video told a different story.
As the car approached, the video showed the little girl not frozen, but running away from it. In the shot above is about where the father grabbed her and pulled her toward the entrance to the store. Kudos to the dad for reacting quickly. But had he done nothing, his daughter would be just fine. Yet Gile never pointed this out. She could have shown the father the video, and had him do a little play-by-play. Then he might have realized his memory was a little off. And that is no big surprise. When something so frightening and unexpected happens, it's easy to remember things not exactly the way they happened. But that also would have made their sidebar far less interesting, and harder to sell the dad as a hero. But Gile reported the family considers him a hero, and Laura Diaz agreed "he is absolutely a hero."
No, he is good dad who did the right thing. But I honestly don't think that puts him into the hero category.
Yesterday, the inaccuracy continued on MSNBC. KNBC's Jennifer Bjorklund did a story in which she said "a man and child nearly run over when a car jumped up onto a curb..." Well let me show you where the car stopped.
As you can see, it never jumped the curb. I don't know why she didn't have a closer look at the video before reporting that.
Needless the say, the actually shooting was a sensational story. This is a story that should need no embellishment. But leave it to LA TV to find a way.
KCBS TOO SQUEAMISH
Remember the chase last week where the pickup truck went off the freeway and rolled over? I know, pretty tame compared to Wednesday's events. When the truck rolled over, one guy was thrown from the truck.
It may be a little hard to make out, but you can see the guy lying there near the top of the picture. However, KCBS was the one station which would NOT show this guy being thrown from the truck after the initial live coverage of it. During a replay, Harold Greene said "we're not going to show you that" without saying why. Later, he said they wouldn't show it because "this very well could be a fatal." Well, it wasn't. But even at 11pm, KCBS still would not show that video. Every other station I saw, showed it.
KCBS certainly has a right to play things so conservatively. But I don't think that is going to help them win viewers as they try to climb out of third place.
BUT THIS WAS A GOOD SIDEBAR
That pickup truck had been carjacked. And after their main story at 11pm, KCBS's Jennifer Sabih did a sidebar on the man who owned the car. Except for one short sound bite, the man didn't talk on camera. But Sabih did a fine job of story telling, of how two guys stole the car from the man while he was with his son.
She also interviewed the woman above, who said the men first tried to get the keys to her mother's car from her mother. But her mother didn't understand them, and they got frustrated and moved on to the man they eventually carjacked. This story and the one mentioned above are good contrasting examples of a good sidebar, and a bad one.
KABC LATE ON A KEY FACT
Several minutes into their 5pm newscast, after the pickup chase was over, anchor David Ono said they did not know if the second person in that truck was the carjack victim. But 20 minutes earlier, during their 4pm newscast, KCBS reported that the carjack victim was not in the truck, and that he was back in Lancaster. They got that from the LA County Fire Department, probably because the victim is an LA County Firefighter. This is some significant info to be so late on.
TALK ABOUT A CONTRAST IN STYLE
In the following audio, you'll hear two different ways in which the end of the pickup truck pursuit was described. In the first, it is a story by Chuck Henry, which includes some sound from chopper pilot Chip Paige, taken from his live coverage. And take note how distorted Paige's audio is. Then listen to how Harold Greene, Ann Martin and Gary Lineberry described the end of the chase.
So, let's keep the caffeine away from Paige...and maybe give a little to Lineberry. Maybe Paige would've sounded a little better if his audio wasn't so distorted. Of course one cause of distortion is yelling into your microphone.JIM, JIM WHERE ART THOU?
With Desiree Horton gone, Jim Holcomb is among the chopper reporters being used by KABC, and I think he does a good job too (sounds much more natural than Bill Thomas too). But during the aftermath of that pickup truck chase...two times they tried to reach him in the 5pm news, and two times he was not there. I know he couldn't have gone anywhere, so I don't know what the problem was. But it obviously doesn't sound good when anchor David Ono says "Okay, we don't have Jim once again." Later on, the third time was the charm...he was there.
THEY CORRECTED THE MISTAKE
The day after OTR pointed out that KCBS had mistakenly called Johnny Mountain meteorologist on their graphic, they changed to Forecaster.
Now, if we can get Mountain to admit that he knew he was going to KCBS when he "retired" in January, that will be real progress.
WE CONTINUE OUR Q&A WITH TIMES SPORTS EDITOR BILL DWYRE
Ron: I'd like your opinions on the guys who do sports in local TV. Is there anyone who you feel does quality sports journalism? And journalism aside, is there any local sports anchor you especially enjoy watching, or - if you're willing to say - anyone who makes you change the channel?
Bill: They are all all right. They do as much as they can with 2 minutes, or whatever they get. It is a different medium, and I don't pretend to know all about it, other than to see the same things everybody else sees. I like Fred Roggin cause he understood early on that it is a visual medium and he finds great visuals and goes with him. I like Jim Hill because he is a comfortable old shoe who has been around and does lots of good things for the community. I don't expect him to be ripping people. I don't expect viewers expect him too, either. I like Allan Massengale because he tries stuff, like his little joke at the end of the show. I think Jack Haley is a joke, but then, I'm not in the minority there. I liked Van Earl Wright because he took on Jack Haley when Haley was saying stupid things, which was nightly. I wish he were still there. He was different. He had a style. A little strange, but a style nevertheless. I wish Fox would let Carolyn Hughes and Lindsay Soto have a bit more of an edge to their questions, rather than having to play the friendly, pretty, non-controversial role every time out. I dislike most everything about ESPN because it is so full of itself. The existence of Around the Horn is reason enough to believe that the Apocalypse is upon us. But hell, it is sports television. This is not McNeil-Lehrer or Meet the Press. They have a short time to report/entertain and the line between the two on the tube is pretty blurred these days.
Ron: I realize TV does have its limitations, but do you think the public might be better served if they did some things with a harder edge, just as TV news offers occasional hard hitting news pieces?
Bill: The public would be best served by enjoying what it can get from TV sports, in the small amount of time sports is allotted, and then buying and reading a daily newspaper.
Ron: But let's not forget sports talk radio. Any local talk shows that you like and listen to? Anyone you think should try another profession?
Bill: I think Rome is a great interviewer and I used to love to listen to Petro Papadakis because he just was so much out of control that it was hilarious. But mostly, I listen to the traffic and curse the traffic and dream about bass fishing in Wisconsin. Plus, every time I get into the habit of listening to one show or one guy, somebody buys his station and he is suddenly somewhere else on the dial that I can't find. So I just give up. Oh yes, Brett Lewis is smart and clever on KFWB.
WE CONCLUDE NEXT WEEK WITH BILL DWYRE WHO TELLS US WHICH COLUMNIST GENERATES THE MOST COMPLAINTS.
LOOKS LIKE THE NEW UNIFORM
Was there some kind of "wear red" day recently? Anyway I could help but notice how well Ellen Leyva and Miriam Hernandez seemed to match. Reminds me of the old days when all the KABC male anchors would wear the same blazer.
TIME TO GRADE KCOP ANCHORS
Two of their anchors - Rick Garcia and Jennifer Gould - do sports on KTTV. In fact, Lauren Sanchez readers entertainment on channel 11. But please only grade them on their KCOP news anchoring. Just click on the name/grade, and then hit "send." And please remember, this is for subscribers only. Thanks.
Rick Garcia
Lauren Sanchez
Michael Brownlee
Jennifer Gould
RATINGS SNAPSHOT
Wednesday 5pm (5/11)
KABC - 6.7
KNBC - 3.4
KCBS - 1.4
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