FNC Sleeps on another international story

[Markxxx]

I hate defending FOX News but MSNBC and CNN weren't really covering anything. I watched MSNBC and yeah they reported the news and spend hour after hour stating, "We don't know what's happening," and "The death toll MIGHT be as high as..."

OK that is guessing. That's not covering. It's a waste of time to state the same meaningless fact over and over and over again.

I saw the same picture of some supermarket and the airport with carts scattered all over. Obviously MSNBC and CNN had no reporters on the scene and/or couldn't get pictures back, probably due to electricy and Internet interruptions, which is fine.

So why stay on the air with a news story and say "The death toll MAY be XXX and may climb higher."

It means nothing. The days of having stringers in far out locations to cover stories if needed are long over and this is a great example of all the networks relying on peolpe with cellphones and Internet to do their jobs and failing at it.

The tsunami was a non-event, everyone knew darn well nothing major was going to happen yet they played it up with scare tactics all day long. This is irresponsible and all that will happen is when a real problem occurs next time people will ignore it.

It's like I live in Chicago, and everytime I hear thunder every TV station is issuing a thunderstorm warning and telling you to take cover. It's lost all meaning now. You can't tell a legit warning from the scare tactics to cover their butts.

It's better to break into regular features with an update than to spend the entire day making guesses and employing scare tactics on tsunamis that won't happen

 

[azumanga]

Can't wait until Monday for Pat Robertson The 700 Club comments about the "Chilean" earthquake. What he will say?

My guess is that he'll name-drop Pinochet.

 

[R.D.P.]

My thoughts and Prayers are with those that were affected by this tsunami.

R.D.P. <><

 

[searadiofreak]

I hate defending FOX News but MSNBC and CNN weren't really covering anything. I watched MSNBC and yeah they reported the news and spend hour after hour stating, "We don't know what's happening," and "The death toll MIGHT be as high as..."

OK that is guessing. That's not covering. It's a waste of time to state the same meaningless fact over and over and over again.

I saw the same picture of some supermarket and the airport with carts scattered all over. Obviously MSNBC and CNN had no reporters on the scene and/or couldn't get pictures back, probably due to electricy and Internet interruptions, which is fine.

So why stay on the air with a news story and say "The death toll MAY be XXX and may climb higher."

It means nothing. The days of having stringers in far out locations to cover stories if needed are long over and this is a great example of all the networks relying on peolpe with cellphones and Internet to do their jobs and failing at it.

The tsunami was a non-event, everyone knew darn well nothing major was going to happen yet they played it up with scare tactics all day long. This is irresponsible and all that will happen is when a real problem occurs next time people will ignore it.

It's like I live in Chicago, and everytime I hear thunder every TV station is issuing a thunderstorm warning and telling you to take cover. It's lost all meaning now. You can't tell a legit warning from the scare tactics to cover their butts.

It's better to break into regular features with an update than to spend the entire day making guesses and employing scare tactics on tsunamis that won't happen

Absolutely spot-on. This episode today will make the next warning meaningless. The media got caught up in sensationalism here, when they really had no idea what was going to occur. I say, let the local authorities handle these episodes, not Fox or CNN, who were aiming their reporting not at Hawaii, but at the rest of their audience who love drama.

 

[gr8oldies]

TV stations don't issue warnings, the NWS does. TV stations decide what to do with them. You've seen all the threads on R-I bashing stations for being automated during severe weather? The proper authorities issued the tsunami warning. Should the TV stations have said "warning schmarning. Go out and surf!"
I remember April 3, 1974. The Dayton Daily News, then an afternoon paper, was arriving on doorsteps with a columnist complaining about severe weather warnings interrupting "Gunsmoke". Meanwhile the Xenia tornado was killing people and destroying the town.

 

[YEKIMI]

Yeah, I remember getting a Dayton Daily Newspaper that day. I'd like to thank the Xenia tornado for dropping it in my NORTHEAST Ohio yard. [We actually did find a check from somebody in Xenia in our neighbors yard the next day, we were pretty amazed that it was carried that far north. And when Willard was half destroyed by a tornado a few years later we found paperwork from Willard business' in our neighborhood]

 

[stationi]

I spent about 10 hours, nearly straight, watching the coverage of the events in Chile starting about a half hour to hour after it happened. Online I was watching several news streams in Spanish. On TV I checked out Univision, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. Like everyone else said, Fox News' coverage was substandard and the worst by far. Our local Telemundo, Telefutura, and Estrella TV affiliates stuck with infomercials and repeats. Every network covering the story was broadcasting the "24 Horas" tv network feed as far as I could tell. CNN didn't begin airing content from CNN Chile for several hours which was slightly odd.

Unfortunately, once the tsunami story hit the air the coverage of the events in Chile got pushed aside and all eyes and cameras were on Hawaii. It seemed like the media no longer cared about Chile when there was a potential threat to a piece of US land.

 

[koolestcat]

CNN loves this kind of news as people tend to gravitate to them to find out the latest info and the ratings show this. Unfortunately these events don't last long or sputter like yesterday's Tsunami coverage.

 

[BRNout]

CNN loves this kind of news as people tend to gravitate to them to find out the latest info and the ratings show this. Unfortunately these events don't last long or sputter like yesterday's Tsunami coverage.

Clearly, this is the sort of event where CNN shines because they have a worldwide infrastructure that others don't. But it goes beyond that - they also seem to be the first to jump on an after-hours type of story/event such as this tragedy in Chile. CNN seems to always be the first to get someone on-scene; they still have that old fashioned hustle that used to be more common.

CNN didn't begin airing content from CNN Chile for several hours which was slightly odd.

My suspicion is that CNN's operations in Chile were affected by the earthquake and that it took them a while to get up and running. Remember, CNN Chile (as a broadcast entity) is not a 24/7 network. At 3:35 am local time, they were almost certainly carrying a feed from CNN en Espanol - then were likely knocked off the air for a time. They had to get reporters to the studios, dispatch crews, etc. in the middle of this national emergency. So it doesn't surprise me that it took a while for them to start providing content.

On the "tsunami" coverage, the watching from Hawaii was very interesting (compelling, even) because nobody knew what to expect. What I did NOT expect was that not one Hawaiian station seemed to have a crew on the Big Island! The live coverage was provided via Skype, phone lines and from independent webcam internet sites. Really amateurish. One would think that, given 12 hours notice, at least one Honolulu station could get a damn camera crew to Hilo. Wouldn't they keep one on the island anyway? The way it was portrayed, it was as if Hilo was a distant outpost that could only be covered remotely (like Midway Island or something). Very surprising.

It was also entertaining to watch the local news coverage of a couple of Honolulu stations - very retro! Like in the 80s.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Fox spent many hours in the late afternoon showing the beach at Waikiki for the tsunami that never arrived.
I think there may be a market though for a 24 hour Waikiki Beach channel.

Also one of their female anchors annoyingly kept taking about how many "U.S. Americans" had been injured
in the earthquake in Chile. I mean, I know they have former beauty queens working for that channel....but
seriously!

 

[BRNout]

Also one of their female anchors annoyingly kept taking about how many "U.S. Americans" had been injured
in the earthquake in Chile. I mean, I know they have former beauty queens working for that channel....but
seriously!

OMG, did she really say that?!? Wow, that one has me speechless - hope there's a You Tube of it out there in cyberspace.

It certainly wasn't that fine Julie Banderas - I caught some of her coverage and clearly she's way too smart to make a comment like like. However, you bring out a good point in that FNC's attention was only truly grabbed by the thought of a potential tsunami rolling onto Hawaii. Once that threat passed, they went back into so-so coverage of Chile.

 

[gr8oldies]

She actually was technically correct---Chile is in South America, so technically those folks are also "Americans". In South America they will call U.S. residents "norteamericanos". Not saying she knew that, but...

 

[searadiofreak]

She actually was technically correct---Chile is in South America, so technically those folks are also "Americans". In South America they will call U.S. residents "norteamericanos". Not saying she knew that, but...

When Fox uses the term "Americans", you can bet they are talking about US citizens!

 

[DToTheJ]

I hate defending FOX News but MSNBC and CNN weren't really covering anything. I watched MSNBC and yeah they reported the news and spend hour after hour stating, "We don't know what's happening," and "The death toll MIGHT be as high as..." OK that is guessing. That's not covering. It's a waste of time to state the same meaningless fact over and over and over again...

I wasn't watching, but a friend of mine on Facebook who was watching MSNBC's live coverage on Saturday afternoon quoted anchor David Shuster telling viewers, "we are counting down to the tsunami" (this was around 4 PM ET, when the first wave was expected to hit in Hawaii). The Facebook friend proceeded to take Shuster to task in her status, instructing him that it was "not Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve."