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MEDIA COVERAGE HAS BECOME EMBARRASING

L

LITTLEBOYBLUE

What did I learn this week?

If you want MEGA fame ... you show up at the White House uninvited.
If you want anonymity ... you commit a major crime on a Sunday morning when only one TV station will cover the incident.

Kudos to KING/NWCN for in-depth coverage of a HUGE community tragedy in Lakewood.

Absolute heart-felt sympathies to all in Pierce County today.

(for those keeping score:
KING/NWCN: Ongoing breakins & coverage
KOMO, KIRO, KCPQ: network
KIRO-FM: Seahawks pregame
KOMO-AM: regular news coverage

In short: News is breaking on WEB now before carried on traditional electronic media. That statement bears repeating. NEWS IS BREAKING ON THE WEB now BEFORE CARRIED ON THE TRADITIONAL ELECTRONIC MEDIA. Yes, some of those sites are the electronic media sites ... but it is a remarkable snapshot of what the landscape is like today.
 
Oh COME ON NOW, LBB. The incident happened THIRTY MINUTES before your post. What do you want - all four live news stations to put crews in Tacoma so they can cover Lakewood incidents as fast as you want them to?

And OF COURSE news breaks on the Web sooner than traditional media. With smartphones, handheld HD cameras and wireless broadband Joe Q. Public has gear that's better than TV stations had a decade and half earlier.

I don't see it as becoming embarrassing. It's just that there's more outlets for news these days. And the sooner the MSM embraces the concept and uses it to their advantage the better.
 
Four officers killed within a month after another officer killed is a HUGE story ... it's not a LAKEWOOD story. Thirty minutes (which, by the way is inaccurate ... it was nearly two hours) is enough to get at least a CRAWL on the air if indeed football is more important. In KOMO-TV's case, Disney programming trumps live coverage.

My point is if you're going to spend all week jamming positioning statements of "when news breaks we'll let you know" then sleep it off because it's a weekend morning, then your viewer/listener trust is broken once again. When people learn breaking stories mean they can't turn to news radio & TV for coverage, they will find someone who WILL give that coverage. Think about how many people hit CNN and stayed with it when 9/11 broke..because the were PROVIDING the service.

I hope I didn't inadvertently pull you away from tuning Selector rotations to get you this frustrated. I realize community breaking news where they rely on media to generate tips (esp. since Pierce county no longer has its own electronic media to speak of) is probably more of a distraction that ensuring Brooks & Dunn, Britney & Lady GaGa spins are on-track.
 
LBB, your points are valid, but I will give KIRO-TV credit for coming through on the evening newscasts, going wall to wall with the story between 5-7. And BTW, they were the only station that I could find a steam. KOMO evidently shuts their streaming down on the weekends, regardless of breaking stories, and KING, well I just don't think they believe in it at this point.
 
I've been following all day as well. I first saw something around 9 this morning on the KOMO website. I then went to NWCN and KING5 on TV. Later, KIRO7 was on and then lastly KOMO4, but they lasted a little longer after the KING and KIRO went back to network. I did listen for a while on KOMO1000 before and after church this morning.

On the evening news broadcasts, I flipped between 4 and 7. KING5 was playing football and I presume couldn't interrupt that.
 
At the end of the day, all the TV's (except KCPQ) did a great job. KOMO-TV late to the party to start coverage .. which obviously confused me first thing this morning. While network agreements are very complex (even prohibiting changing screen appearance in many cases), you have to wonder why the agreements permit major news interruptions but don't permit a visual compromise (digital screen share, text crawl, etc).

Other than sampling in the morning, didn't make it to radio, so unsure if KIRO-FM ever came on board. It would seem that like the TV arrangements, you could make a case that AM carries Hawks while FM goes back to news coverage...but I didn't get the impression that option was on the table.


In the end, I think the "star" of the day was Det. Troyer who kept information flowing quickly, accurately ... and while having to juggle the professional duties with what I assume were off-the-chart personal ones. A "pleasant surprise" was seeing Jim Forman really "dial it down" with very good coverage today that showed emotional sensitivity over sensationalism.

Obviously less embarrassing at the end of the day than at the beginning ... my original outrage more directed to stations having made so many compromises that it seemed a huge breaking news story just wasn't going to be "in the budget", other than KING which already had a crew on board to support the morning news broadcast they do Sunday mornings.


Sympathies to EVERYONE involved ... spectating, reporting, and directly invol;ved.
 
Perceived delay of getting news on the air isn't just a Seattle issue.. A few months ago when the Washington DC Metro (commuter train) accident occurred that killed 9 and injured scores of others happenned, I was at a hotel watching CNN who were the ones who scooped all the local TV and radio stations in the DC area. This incident happenned in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, not a holiday weekend as was this terrible incident in Tacoma. When the story broke about a possible Metro derailment on CNN, I started flipping around to all the local DC/Baltimore TV stations, nothing. Next I turned on the radio to WTOP, who was in sports. In fact, WTOP took almost 45 minutes to get anything on.
 
Here's a close-up perspective and opinion on local radio and TV's handling of the breaking news out of Pierce County on Sunday.

I was on air anchoring at KOMO when my editor came in to the newsroom at about 8:32 AM. We hit the breaking news sounder and gave the initial details (skimpy as they were) that 'multiple officers were down at a coffee shop in Lakewood following a shooting'. Two minutes later, our traffic guy confirmed the physical address which is actually in Parkland.

Then we had to scramble and get reporters away from their Sunday activities and send them down I-5 to the scene. The first one arrived there around 9, the second one shortly thereafter. We went 'live' with first one and then both every 10 minutes in the 9 AM hour.

We had a long-form public affairs show scheduled at 10 AM on KOMO. Imagine what it was like to blow out the segments, insert beds and other elements and provide updates while at the same time, handling news coming in so quickly that much of what we broadcast was unscripted, ad-libbed and on the fly. Yet, we had to be cautious and check and double check the info coming in and be sure that what we were getting and communicating was factual. It's very crucial to keep one's thinking in focus.

I stayed on until just before 11 when I was relieved by the guy in charge and he took it from there. At the same time, we called in additional staff to handle the calls and try to track down information.

All hands on deck did their best and tried to do it accurately and with sensitivity. No doubt every other news agency in town....radio or TV....did so with those responsibilities in mind.

Bob Mathers
KOMO Newsradio
 
bobmathers said:
All hands on deck did their best and tried to do it accurately and with sensitivity. No doubt every other news agency in town....radio or TV....did so with those responsibilities in mind.

Bob Mathers
KOMO Newsradio
Click to expand...

I was driving around and tuned in around 8:50. I understand the staffing issues and the integrity part. My only comment is that block of spots that's run before the top of the hour, before ABC. I would have broken in the middle of that to let people know (again) you're on top of the story and you're working on collecting details.
 
LITTLEBOYBLUE said:
At the end of the day, all the TV's (except KCPQ) did a great job.
Click to expand...

Agree.

You mentioned the web earlier in the thread. What happened with both KING and KOMO sites was that early in the story, they gave a detailed physical description of Clemmons. Later in the same story, it was the general description of a person they were looking for, clearly written before the Clemmons news came out.

Some proofreading would help make things a little more clean in the story reporting online.
 
AQH said:
bobmathers said:
All hands on deck did their best and tried to do it accurately and with sensitivity. No doubt every other news agency in town....radio or TV....did so with those responsibilities in mind.

Bob Mathers
KOMO Newsradio
Click to expand...

I was driving around and tuned in around 8:50. I understand the staffing issues and the integrity part. My only comment is that block of spots that's run before the top of the hour, before ABC. I would have broken in the middle of that to let people know (again) you're on top of the story and you're working on collecting details.
Click to expand...

Picky, picky....I thought KOMO did a fabulous job of "being on it." I was at my station at the time and streaming KIRO @ my desk (great job guys) and listening to KOMO on the way home.

Kudos to national news as well for picking this up as I feel the NW is sometimes neglected on the national scene.
 
I've been following this story the last few days and I am absolutely sickened to my soul.

I have some friends in law enforcement and I met one officer yesterday who was trying to fight back his tears. We all were. And no amount of radio or TV coverage could equal that moment. And he didn't even say a word at first. His face said everything. And then some.

The very fact that our brave men and women in law enforcement can still carry on in a world where they themselves are becoming targets is something we painfully overlook. People always think terrorism is something that happens elsewhere now. That it's something al-Qaeda or Hezbullah does to our armed forces overseas. We never seem to stop and think that what street gangs and hardened criminals right here in America are doing to our police and communities is EXACTLY the SAME THING. And sadly, the police are outnumbered, they don't have the same weapons and resources. And they're dealing with a problem that just gets worse every year.

If there is ever an angle to this story that NEEDS to be explored in depth by our broadcast media, it's that one......
 
Bongwater said:
I've been following this story the last few days and I am absolutely sickened to my soul.
Click to expand...

I'm probably going to regret asking this, but how can you be sickened for the last few days over something that happened yesterday?
 
AQH said:
Bongwater said:
I've been following this story the last few days and I am absolutely sickened to my soul.
Click to expand...

I'm probably going to regret asking this, but how can you be sickened for the last few days over something that happened yesterday?
Click to expand...

No regrets. Two days - that's a few. OK, a couple days if you want to be grammatically correct about it.....But sickening still.....
 
When you realize that many people still haven't adequately "processed" the similar situation in Seattle (Halloween) it's easy to be "sickened" by this for many days. Today...that family did one of the classiest things I have ever seen by issuing a statement to support families in Lakewood. What an awesome community we have!
 
Indeed LBB. And it is not to discount what happened to Officer Tim Brenton. But I feel so...I don't know...just so disgusted at what these people are given and the battle they have to face for our own protection and the goodwill they try and feel to our communities. And then these scumbags have to go and kill the very noblest of us. The ones fighting the good fight. The ones who keep us all safe

And yes, with a handle like "Bongwater" on this board, sympathy for the police may be the very LAST thing you would expect from me. But you would be surprised.

They fight much worse things than I will EVER be and they KNOW it. And off the record, some of them believe the same way I do. That cannabis should be legalized. They frown upon it (just as they worry about alcohol - actually on any given day, they hate that even more.) But I understand they have one of the toughest jobs in the world and I cooperate 1000% if they ask. It's their job.

All I know in the end is there are some families without a very special parent safe in their homes tonight........and that.....is painfully WRONG....

And thanks dialtwister. If I sounded like I got a little too harsh, well, you ain't heard nothing yet. I just want to see this guy GONE for good....I sincerely do not feel it's to anyone's advantage to even acknowledge this creep in any way.

The very LAST thing you want is to have some idiot to discover this (this is a PUBLIC board) and privately Twitter him on a place to hide. If he is counting on that, I want him to count it as the worst mistake of his worthless life. I hope Twitter will get serious and close that damn account of his. Before some jackass decides he is even close to worthy to let him in his/her life. Enough is enough.

When someone has killed a police officer (just like any innocent child), the very gates of HELL should ABSOLUTELY swing WIDE OPEN for them.....and close IRREVOCABLY and UNPENETRATABLY shut FOREVER for them once inside.

Harsh words from a Buddhist guy with a wife who is a Wiccan. But there are some lines that we ALL understand, regardless of religious beliefs, lines that you just simply DO NOT CROSS WHATSOEVER. Be it an innocent child or innocent police officers enjoying their morning coffee.

Maurice Clemmons has crossed that line.

And he should face the ultimate penalty. And in the VERY WORST possible way. This is why I do NOT believe in the death penalty. I want him to suffer for as long and as painfully as the poor survivors of these families whom he has devastated. Which may be for all eternity.

And trust me. It WILL be.
 
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