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A media critique... and then some!
Friday letters are up Coming Tuesday - Kelly Mack is coming back soon. OTR has learned the details. Inside LA TV - More on Kelly Mack. Insider reaction to Sanchez expose. Gould out as anchor. Check out Recent Issues 07-19-05 Tuesday's OTR 07-15-05 Friday's OTR
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TIME TO RE-EVALUATE CHASE POLICY
As I watched that truck chase last Friday night on the KCBS 11pm news, I couldn't help but think this was one of the most boring half-hours TV news had ever seen. Now granted, I was watching it on TiVo the next day, starting and stopping it, prolonging the misery. And having Laura Diaz as the solo anchor didn't help. And yes, I'd already watched it on KCOP, so I'd really seen enough. BUT.....no doubt about it, this was a DULL chase. For a half hour, this big rig travels along, never speeds, never does anything dangerous. Just imagine, sitting there watching a truck on a freeway on TV for a half-hour straight. Even though chases always seem to enjoy very high ratings, I could not believe that would be the case this time. Turns out...I was right.
RATINGS (7/15/05)
10:45 - 11:00pm (LEAD-IN)
KABC 3.62
KNBC 2.99
KCBS 2.17
KCOP 2.10
11PM
KABC 5.17
KNBC 4.43
KCBS 3.44
KCOP 1.97
On the other hand, with the exception of KCOP, (Granted, KCOP is not a serious news competitor, but they did show the chase and so they need to be included), the other three stations did improve on their lead-ins, which is not typical, based on the May ratings. In the case of KABC, their July ratings do show an increase above the lead-in. However, this boost is a litte above that July average. Still, I believe viewers voted with their remotes compared to what you would normally see, and either found KNBC, or went someplace else.
SOOOO........
I've never been against showing pursuits. But when three of four 11pm newscasts totally blow out their shows to stare at a truck for a half-hour, it's time to re-evaluate. I'm not suggesting anything radical. I am saying, if a station can see that a chase is as uninteresting as this one was, they should dump out. Start evaluating chases on a case-by-case basis as with any other story. It's time to end the knee-jerk policy of showing all pursuits.
PIT MANEUVER? HOW COULD THEY IGNORE THAT?
I realize that Rick Garcia and Lauren Sanchez don't have much experience with chases. And given that fact, they didn't do a bad job last Friday. In fact, Sanchez said her uncle is a trucker. BUT.....I think their inexperience showed when chopper reporter Kevin Takumi said something that I thought was ridiculous. In reference to the CHP, he said, "there was some mention of trying to do a PIT maneuver."
A PIT maneuver on a big rig? How could you do that? I find it hard to believe that the CHP considered it. Are they going to run a cruiser into the rear tires? I can't imagine that would do any good. And even if it could, do you really want a big rig losing control on the freeway? Makes NO sense to me. Yet neither Garcia or Sanchez said a word!
Later, after talking about the possibility that there was someone else in the truck, Takumi said "they wouldn’t try anything as drastic a pit maneuver with a person in the cab…." Again, no question or comment from the anchors about trying a PIT maneuver on a big rig.
They did have a former trucker who called in, who I thought certainly added some good info about trucks and really helped make their newscast more listenable. He was quite articulate.
In the half-hour I watched, KCOP actually did cutaway to show the anchors, as you can see up above. I guess there is no point in having those implants if they aren't put on display, even if only for a few seconds.
AT LEAST KCBS HAD WELK
At one point early on, it appeared that either Laura Diaz wasn't paying attention to Welk, or she just couldn't think of anything to ask, so she asked a stupid question.
Welk had commented on how experienced the driver appears to be. And a little later, at 11:06, Welk said "He’s just been handling himself well. He’s driving normally. The driver…freeway speeds 65 miles an hour. He’s been driving very reasonable." One minute later, Diaz said how the chase had been going on for an hour and then asked Welk "...over that hour period of time, do you think his driving has become more erratic?”
This chase ended around two AM. We learned the next day that the driver of this "stolen truck" was the man who was hired to drive it for the owner. He didn't deliver the load as planned, and soon enough the chase was on. Though it appeared that during the chase, no one really knew that. It could have been a truck-jacking.
This event also showed the chance you take when you put unconfirmed information on the air. For example, Gary Lineberry said "Earlier as we were listening and Larry was on the air, it sounds like the driver definitely is a hostage, if we can indeed believe the audio we are hearing out of that truck. The driver is a hostage. He has at least one or two people in here. He says they have him at gunpoint….."
Welk later said "If this is not a hoax, it has become an extremely tragic situation inside that truck." And describing the person talking to the CHP (via CB radio as I understood it), Welk said …"and he is using incredibly foul language with the officers..."
Whether that audio was originating from the truck, or someplace else, it certainly turned out to be hoax. To their credit, KCBS always qualified the questionable stuff. Assuming the CHP is releasing this stuff, and you're covering the chase live, I guess I can't blame KCBS for repeating it, in the proper context.
Yet, when it was all over, we had a very dull chase, no gunpoint, no hostage. Of course I'm glad that was the case. But it was just a total waste of a half-hour that you can never get back. Buyer, or viewer, beware.
IT'S A THREE-PERSON RUNOFF
BEST LA TV FIELD REPORTER
The first round votes are in, and after 103 votes.... we have a runoff between Patrick Healy, Beverly White and defending champ Dave Lopez.. I was ready to make it a two-person race, but just as I was wrapping up, another vote came in for Lopez. Just seemed like the fair thing to do.
Even though I keep asking for people to vote ONCE, I still get two votes from some folks. That means dumping both votes. So once again, please just ONE vote for best reporter. Thanks.
Please click on either Healy, White or Lopez, and then hit "send."
Patrick Healy - KNBC - 18
Beverly White - KNBC - 14
Dave Lopez- KCBS - 13
Eric Spillman - 10
Mark Coogan - 9
Bill Smith - 8
Michele Gile - 5
Gayle Anderson - 4
Gene Gleeson - 4
Vikki Vargas - 4
Robert Kovacik - 3
Patricia Del Rio - 2
Gigi Graciette - 2
Sandra Mitchell - 2
Willa Sandmeyer - 2
Elizabeth Espinosa - 1
Craig Feigener - 1
John Gregory - 1
WHERE IS THE BALANCE? LOOKS LIKE LAZINESS
Anchor Micah Ohlman said “community
activists” were protesting the Minuteman Project. Ohlman
read "The activists claim the border watch volunteers are
anti-immigrant vigilantes. They hope their demonstration will show
that not all the people of
This was just a 30-second voiceover, yet the bias was there. For one thing, it implied that the Minutemen are anti-immigrant, when in fact they are anti-illlegal immigrant. And if you're going to let the "activists" accuse the Minuteman Project of taking the law into their own hands - which they have not done - then why not give the Minuteman folks the courtesy of a denial?
And just WHO were these "community activists" which prompted this story? The story never mentioned any group by name. But if you look at their signs, they appear to be far from a mainstream group.
Check out that sign with the communist red fist, and what appears to me to be some sort of hammer and sickle. Or what about "Nobody is illegal." Could this really be a group advocating open borders? Check out this t-shirt...
Yes, this is appears to be an open border group. And by suggesting that the Minutemen be smashed, just who is closer to being the real vigilante?
Now, I observed all this from simply watching the story on TV. Yet no one at KABC bothered to check it out. Let's face it, pure and simple, this is LAZY reporting by KABC.
But you may wonder, could this laziness be more tolerable because of a pro-illegal alien bias? Consider this: in the KABC computer assignment file a few months ago, when referencing a news conference to be given by some folks critical of the governor, it said that they were holding a news conference "to denounce anti-immigrant rhetoric."
Granted, it may've been cut and pasted from elsewhere. But it does at least create the appearance that the news department has decided Arnold's rhetoric was "anti-immigrant." And I think it is key that this line makes no distinction between immigration and illegal immigration ( just like what they put on the air above), a line which the pro illegal immigrations folks always try to blur.
Let's face it. If you believe that our borders need to be controlled, you're not only fighting the Republican and Democratic establishment, but you're also fighting the most of the news media.
BREAKING NEWS? HAH!
It may not be as embarrassing as KABC's "breaking news" for a dog which had killed another dog, but how about a 3.8 earthquake, centered near Baker? Yes KCAL anchor Pat Harvey did the story as "breaking news." She said they didn't know if there were any injuries, and co-anchor Glen Walker said the assignment desk was checking it out. And so this news, WHY? Because if there are no injuries or building damage, just what is the value, other than trying to frighten viewers who live in earthquake country?
I've had to say this too many times. In an area which has been savaged by serious earthquakes, it is an insult to viewers to try to make routine earthquakes into something they are not.
I'M WITH COLLEEN
Colleen Williams read the lead-in which said that "a new cocktail" may give doctors an answer in just 30 minutes for a skin cancer biopsy. As she threw the story to Dr. Bruce Hensel, she asked "a cocktail Bruce?" You could hear that the description didn't sound right to her.
But Hensel went along with the lead-in, calling it a cocktail. I guess it was with the AIDS drugs when suddenly "cocktail" had taken on a very different meaning. But in this case, this "cocktail" wasn't even something which a person swallows. Hensel explained that "the MCW melanoma cocktail" uses three anti-bodies to stain biopsy tissue.
I realize that sometimes words evolve in ways we may not like. But this just doesn't sound right to me. I say, if it's not an alcoholic drink, it's not a cocktail.
CHEMO AGAIN
This is starting to get old, isn't it? Yes, I am sorry to say that once again, I must start chemotherapy. My latest PET/CT scan shows that cancer has reappeared. This time it is on my lymph nodes between my stomach and back, and also on some lymph nodes in my chest. It's the first time the cancer has ever moved from my abdomen.
The good news is that the cancer still has NOT invaded any major organ. My liver and lungs are clean. So, the trick will be to try to destroy the cancer of course, and hope that if it comes back, it at least stays on the lymph nodes. The reality is that stage four colon cancer, which I have, never goes away permanently. You just try to fight it off as long as you can.
Let me tell you, I am lucky there is such a thing as a PET scan. This the second time it has spotted cancer in lymph nodes which the CT scan cannot detect. In other words, if not for the PET scan, I wouldn't know I had a reoccurrence until there was some mass detected by the CT. Luckily, I am able to start chemo again before it is that far along.
This chemo that I will be doing is called CPT-11...the same stuff I had last year. It wasn't too hard for me to tolerate. Hopefully that will still be the case. But this time my oncologist is also giving me Avastan. It is a drug which is supposed to stop blood vessels from forming in tumors. Since I have no tumors, I consider this a pro-active move and a very good idea.
I will still try to keep up the same OTR schedule while on chemo, which my doc said will last six months. It starts on Tuesday morning, with an infusion every other week.
I sure wish I had better news. But I want you to know that I am not giving up. I will continue to be as positive as I can be and try to beat this disease. You know I have a lot to live for. I have an awesome wife, a grown son, and though sometimes I wonder -- I do feel like I'm doing something worthwhile here. You have always been an important part of my support system. Your well wishes and prayers have always been welcomed and given me a boost. I thank you again for your support.
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