No Coverage of Baja Earthquake?

[MarcB]

I don't see any coverage of the earthquake that hit Baja California Mexico. CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Telemundo, and Univision are all running regular programming.

Truthfully I would never had known there was an earthquake if I hadn't been watching "Tornado Week" on The Weather Channel. They have information about the quake above the local weather scrolling at the bottom of the screen while Tornado Week Programming is airing.

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

I'm watching CNN now, they are on with live coverage (6:20p MT and I've been watching since about 5:45 MT). I first heard about it when ABC's "World News" mentioned it during their broadcast.

 

[musicman3355]

CNN is now giving coverage of the quake, and our local Telemundo/Univision station just now interrupted programming for local news coverage. Crazy earthquake.

 

[kms575]

I don't see any coverage of the earthquake that hit Baja California Mexico. CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Telemundo, and Univision are all running regular programming.

Truthfully I would never had known there was an earthquake if I hadn't been watching "Tornado Week" on The Weather Channel. They have information about the quake above the local weather scrolling at the bottom of the screen while Tornado Week Programming is airing.

As far as I could tell, CNN had this from the very beginning.

 

[searadiofreak]

Yes, CNN has been on top of it. (BTW, CNN is evidently trying to find their niche with "breaking news"...don't blame them, they need to do something).

Fox, and the others don't care on the weekend. Especially if it doesn't happen in the east.

 

[jsu5381m]

CNN was running Larry King at 8pm central when trying to find information.

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

Once the initial "breaking" aspect of the story wears off, there's no need to continue coverage.

Yes, it was a major earthquake that jolted southern California, but it wasn't *in* southern California and caused little damage to the major cities affected.

The one or two "I reports" that aired during the live coverage I saw amounted to swinging chandeliers and sloshing pools...hardly compelling video on which to keep a crew in the studio once it was apparent no major damage had occured.

 

[Robnoxious]

Total amount of quake damage is fast approaching $65.
There is nothing more to show.
A road buckled and stuff fell off store shelves.
That's about it, moving on.

 

[formeraa]

CNN was definitely on it. I was in Ontario, CA yesterday taking a nap after Easter brunch. The quake woke me up and I wasn't quite sure what was going on. Within two or three minutes, CNN had "Breaking News" coverage (talking to a producer's brother vacationing in Palm Desert). Shortly after that, their weather center was pulling up the earthquake magnitudes and where it was felt.

My only issue has been with the social media aspect of covering the news. You wonder how many people are actually telling the TRUTH. For example, when I returned to Phoenix last night, most people hadn't felt it at all. Others were claiming that the quake had caused major cracks in their patio and "three foot swells" in their pool. Somebody's not telling the truth here.

 

[justpassingthough]

CNN was definitely on it. I was in Ontario, CA yesterday taking a nap after Easter brunch. The quake woke me up and I wasn't quite sure what was going on. Within two or three minutes, CNN had "Breaking News" coverage (talking to a producer's brother vacationing in Palm Desert). Shortly after that, their weather center was pulling up the earthquake magnitudes and where it was felt.

My only issue has been with the social media aspect of covering the news. You wonder how many people are actually telling the TRUTH. For example, when I returned to Phoenix last night, most people hadn't felt it at all. Others were claiming that the quake had caused major cracks in their patio and "three foot swells" in their pool. Somebody's not telling the truth here.

The social media aspect is still evolving- but the whole idea of having "iReports" and individuals reporting the news basically takes away from the idea of a fair and objective reporter who gathers facts and then reports. On the other hand, news stations have to rely on individual accounts just after the event to give them time to find the true facts.


Of course, this "self" reporting always leads to false accounts of exactly what happened. People's perspections tend to color things incorrectly, and we are left with misinformation.

I live in a high rise in Long Beach, on the 17th floor of an 18 floor building. The building is on rollers, and the sensation of the earthquake was intensified by the rolling of the building, even though we were over 150 miles from the epicenter. If I had called into a local station or CNN, I would have reported close to a minute of rolling and an intensity somewhat close to what Northridge created. The people across the street in a 3 story building, would have felt something completely different.

 

[formeraa]

CNN was definitely on it. I was in Ontario, CA yesterday taking a nap after Easter brunch. The quake woke me up and I wasn't quite sure what was going on. Within two or three minutes, CNN had "Breaking News" coverage (talking to a producer's brother vacationing in Palm Desert). Shortly after that, their weather center was pulling up the earthquake magnitudes and where it was felt.

My only issue has been with the social media aspect of covering the news. You wonder how many people are actually telling the TRUTH. For example, when I returned to Phoenix last night, most people hadn't felt it at all. Others were claiming that the quake had caused major cracks in their patio and "three foot swells" in their pool. Somebody's not telling the truth here.

The social media aspect is still evolving- but the whole idea of having "iReports" and individuals reporting the news basically takes away from the idea of a fair and objective reporter who gathers facts and then reports. On the other hand, news stations have to rely on individual accounts just after the event to give them time to find the true facts.


Of course, this "self" reporting always leads to false accounts of exactly what happened. People's perspections tend to color things incorrectly, and we are left with misinformation.

I live in a high rise in Long Beach, on the 17th floor of an 18 floor building. The building is on rollers, and the sensation of the earthquake was intensified by the rolling of the building, even though we were over 150 miles from the epicenter. If I had called into a local station or CNN, I would have reported close to a minute of rolling and an intensity somewhat close to what Northridge created. The people across the street in a 3 story building, would have felt something completely different.

I agree with the perception issue. There will always be differences in perceptions. I didn't perceive the correct length of the earthquake because 1) I was sleeping and 2) a very noisy A/C unit was running at the same time. In fact, I wasn't even sure that it was an earthquake until CNN verified it.

The question remains about the validity of social media. I did notice that CNN verified the quake with a producer's brother BEFORE sharing the social media reports (which is good reporting).

 

[ShawnHill1]

I live about 12 miles to the north, in Inglewood...we definitely felt the jolt at home. The shaking kind of felt more "swirling" motion, if anything. KABC, I believe, was the first to break the story, and KCBS (finishing up their local sportscast) was right there, as well as KTTV. The other stations were running regular programming; KTLA and KCOP ran bottom-screen scrolls (KCOP's directing viewers over to KTTV), KNBC aired an infomercial, and KCAL was running Inside Edition Weekend.

I was also talking to couple of friends afterward, and one of them mentioned (and it almost slipped my mind) that it was the 42nd anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. If anyone remembers the 1994 earthquake in the Northridge section of Los Angeles, it occurred on the morning of Dr. King's holiday...so ironic.

 

[justpassingthough]

I live about 12 miles to the north, in Inglewood...we definitely felt the jolt at home. The shaking kind of felt more "swirling" motion, if anything. KABC, I believe, was the first to break the story, and KCBS (finishing up their local sportscast) was right there, as well as KTTV. The other stations were running regular programming; KTLA and KCOP ran bottom-screen scrolls (KCOP's directing viewers over to KTTV), KNBC aired an infomercial, and KCAL was running Inside Edition Weekend.

I was also talking to couple of friends afterward, and one of them mentioned (and it almost slipped my mind) that it was the 42nd anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. If anyone remembers the 1994 earthquake in the Northridge section of Los Angeles, it occurred on the morning of Dr. King's holiday...so ironic.

After the shaking stop, my roommate flipped to KABC, which was running "Sports Zone" after the Lakers game. We flipped just in time to see the anchors breathing in and out, still grippping the desk, which helped to confirm that we weren't crazy and we just had an earthquake.

Its funny how instantaneous social media reporting is, though. While we were experiencing shaking, both of my roommates' parents, who live in South Orange County called during the shaking and reported it was over. I checked Facebook immediately after and many of my friends had already reported what they experienced. Its a brave new world in which we live!

 

[ShawnHill1]

I live about 12 miles to the north, in Inglewood...we definitely felt the jolt at home. The shaking kind of felt more "swirling" motion, if anything. KABC, I believe, was the first to break the story, and KCBS (finishing up their local sportscast) was right there, as well as KTTV. The other stations were running regular programming; KTLA and KCOP ran bottom-screen scrolls (KCOP's directing viewers over to KTTV), KNBC aired an infomercial, and KCAL was running Inside Edition Weekend.

I was also talking to couple of friends afterward, and one of them mentioned (and it almost slipped my mind) that it was the 42nd anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. If anyone remembers the 1994 earthquake in the Northridge section of Los Angeles, it occurred on the morning of Dr. King's holiday...so ironic.

After the shaking stop, my roommate flipped to KABC, which was running "Sports Zone" after the Lakers game. We flipped just in time to see the anchors breathing in and out, still grippping the desk, which helped to confirm that we weren't crazy and we just had an earthquake.

Its funny how instantaneous social media reporting is, though. While we were experiencing shaking, both of my roommates' parents, who live in South Orange County called during the shaking and reported it was over. I checked Facebook immediately after and many of my friends had already reported what they experienced. Its a brave new world in which we live!

Yeah, that's exactly what I did...I just happen to have my cell phone sitting next to me, and at least five of my friends all posted messages within a couple of minutes. KABC's Facebook page had the information posted seconds before KCBS/KCAL and KTLA did on their respective pages. I was watching something else at the time of the shaking, and I just flipped over to Channel 7 right away, and after about 10 minutes or so, they went to break, and there's when I went to Channel 2 for a couple of minutes before preceding down the dial...as I mentioned above.

Crazy enough, I was on way to the gym just beforehand, and the fitness center I frequently attend has about 8 or 9 TVs up and running in the cardio area. At least, two of them had CNN on, and they were piggy-backing KABC's live coverage. Usually, they keep on CNN, KTLA, KCBS, KABC, TNT, TBS, and one of the sports networks (usually rotating between NFL Network, Fox Sports West, or ESPN).