• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Local Coverage on John McCain

P

Prescott Joe

There seems to have been and continues to be a very wide
variation on local coverage of John McCain's passing.
Some stations kept with their usual programming and aired
minimal coverage. Other stations preempted all regular
programming and spent hours and hours on interviews and
special interest pieces. Any thoughts?????
 
My limited viewing confirms the wall to wall coverage continues - at least on the former VHF stations in Phoenix. Subnets and LP stations don't seem to care one way or the other. At least McCain's death seems to have quelled the over the top coverage of the death of Aretha.
 
landtuna said:
My limited viewing confirms the wall to wall coverage continues - at least on the former VHF stations in Phoenix. Subnets and LP stations don't seem to care one way or the other. At least McCain's death seems to have quelled the over the top coverage of the death of Aretha.
Click to expand...

I didn't find the Aretha coverage to be "over the top". I thought it was appropriate for someone who had a long influence in the music world and definitely better than the circus-like coverage of politics (e.g. stop covering tweets and start covering the issues).

Back to the thread topic, I loved the John McCain coverage. I watched mainly 3TV coverage because they stayed with the story all eveningg and used "the power of 2" to have reporters all over the place, although Mike Watkiss was definitely missed.
 
In all the lock-step adulation of John McCain I have yet to hear one word about his:

1. Dumping of his first wife Carol and their three children to marry the heir to the Phoenix beer baron fortune.
2. His involvement with the "Keating 5" (savings and loan looting) and Keating's support of McCain's political career.
3. His stupendous mental errors during his presidential campaigns.

While McCain's military career was indeed one of honor and his behavior during his POW years was exemplary, his political career hasn't been nearly so. Of course the bar in our current Congress isn't that high so by contrast perhaps he was a great achiever. In any case his death and funeral seems much more a planned "death of a king" than the passing of a much more flawed individual. Personally, I didn't need to hear the repetitious comments by reporter after reporter quoting a whole litany of self-serving politicians. I too served in our navy in Vietnam and left several good friends and one relative who never made it home so I also understand the meaning of "sacrifice". It isn't all that uncommon.
 
Just finished listening to ABC and CBS national news and KPHO local news and not one mention of any of the above. As a matter of fact, KPHO's most recent adulation was that the last letter he wrote was to congratulate a graduate of the Merchant Marine Academy. A nice touch but hardly worthy of mention.
 
landtuna said:
Just finished listening to ABC and CBS national news and KPHO local news and not one mention of any of the above. As a matter of fact, KPHO's most recent adulation was that the last letter he wrote was to congratulate a graduate of the Merchant Marine Academy. A nice touch but hardly worthy of mention.
Click to expand...

I definitely heard mention of the Keating 5 scandal on both Sunday and Monday local, national, and cable news broadcasts. However, I agree that the two other topics have not been mentioned. It's like he tried to erase his first marriage somehow...but it's all about family values of course. ;)
 
landtuna said:
In all the lock-step adulation of John McCain I have yet to hear one word about his:

1. Dumping of his first wife Carol and their three children to marry the heir to the Phoenix beer baron fortune.
2. His involvement with the "Keating 5" (savings and loan looting) and Keating's support of McCain's political career.
3. His stupendous mental errors during his presidential campaigns.

While McCain's military career was indeed one of honor and his behavior during his POW years was exemplary, his political career hasn't been nearly so. Of course the bar in our current Congress isn't that high so by contrast perhaps he was a great achiever. In any case his death and funeral seems much more a planned "death of a king" than the passing of a much more flawed individual. Personally, I didn't need to hear the repetitious comments by reporter after reporter quoting a whole litany of self-serving politicians. I too served in our navy in Vietnam and left several good friends and one relative who never made it home so I also understand the meaning of "sacrifice". It isn't all that uncommon.
Click to expand...

ABC did mention about John McCains first Marriage and how he blamed himself for ruining that relationship and the Keating 5 on a 20/20 special right when the death was announced. I remember PBS Frontline mentioned similar things too.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/mccain/

https://abc.go.com/shows/2020/episode-guide/2018-08/25-082518-john-mccain-remembering-a-maverick
 
Prescott Joe said:
Interesting that no one has mentioned that the spanish language
stations barely covered John McCain's death........................
Click to expand...

I usually don't watch the Spanish language stations (or radio) because I am not fluent in Spanish. The vast majority of people I know here are not either so it is logical we would not be watching or listening. You would have to ask the Hispanic community itself to find out the level of coverage.

Just for grins yesterday I tuned into a TV station in Taiwan (even though I do not understand Mandarin either). Right after news of the big typhoon and some sinkholes they had a rather long story on McCain using the same old film and photos we have seen here.
 
Prescott Joe said:
Interesting that no one has mentioned that the spanish language
stations barely covered John McCain's death........................
Click to expand...

Everything in news coverage is about relevance to the audience.
 
I suspect that after 25 minutes of terrible news of the world the last story is designed to prevent viewers from reaching for their assisted suicide package. These stories are almost always pure fluff and, other than feel good, affect no one.
 
DavidEduardo said:


Everything in news coverage is about relevance to the audience.
Click to expand...

Does that indicate that John McCain's passing is not relevant to the hispanic community?
If I understand your statement correctly, only relevant news is delivered to any particular
audience. What decides what is relevant??? Are we all not Americans with similar hopes,
dreams, ambitions, etc, etc ????
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom