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Phoenix hostage standoff: Where's the local coverage?

K

KeithE

Guest
There's a hostage situation in a high-rise near Central and Thomas. I'm getting most of the coverage on CNN, in between the Dubai Ports story.

But where are the local "news" operations?

KTVK: A minute at 9:15, then back to an Oprah rerun. Broke in again at 9:30 and is staying with it for now. It didn't last long. Heaven forbid that they interrupt Her Royal Oprahness!
KPHO: A minute at 9:20, then back to CBS network fare.
KSAZ: Lead story at 9, but they broke from it and did not carry any updates at 9:30.
KPNX: Are you kidding? Ice skating is more important.
KNXV: Finally showed up at 9:30 for 2 minutes.

It's been 6 hours since this started! I saw the first story on it at 9:10 on CNN, although to be fair, I wasn't home for the early newscasts.

KTVK said "check azfamily.com." Bulls#!t! Where is your coverage on Cox Channel 14 if it's so damned important to carry an Oprah rerun?!?!?!? You have a 24-hour news channel there! USE IT!!!!!!!!

Channel 10 is little better, especially considering they're already live at 9.

Apparently Anderson Cooper has more on the ball than the idiots that run the local news operations. The "news" operations in Phoenix now officially make me puke.
 
Meanwhile, at 10...

Channel 3 is redeeming itself with the hostage story being its top priority. 15 is second but it's covering the multiple murders in Mesa as well (it hasn't been a slow news day today).

10 is keeping up on the story but is running a "normal" newscast. 5 is doing the same.

And where is the largest news operation in Arizona? Channel 12 is nowhere to be found (NBC directive?), while the Repulsive does have it as the top story at azcentral.com - at least what passes for a lead story on that site - the Cooney and Curtis ad is bigger.

Memo to Gannett: A hostage situation is an order of magnitude more important than a bunch of ice skaters in Italy (on tape-delay, yet)! Screw NBC! Do your job for the folks in your market!
 
> There's a hostage situation in a high-rise near Central and
> Thomas. I'm getting most of the coverage on CNN, in between
> the Dubai Ports story.
>
> But where are the local "news" operations?

I don't know - what's there to cover really? Guy goes into the National Labor Relations Board office (BTW AZCentral.com said it was a TV station that broke the news that the building housed a US Dept of Labor office), pulls a gun and takes hostages. You report that when it happens (early news), but then it settles into a standoff. There's looooong stretches of nothing to cover, then just before 9, something happens. KFYI radio breaks in (I was driving home - had to detour around the standoff site; I work nearby). OK, so you break in for that, but then what? Nothing's happening. Who do you interview? The police? ( "There's been no change; we'll call a press conference when something develops.") Others working in the building? ("Well, me and Ethel here heard that somebody had a gun, so we came down the stairs.") Commuters like me? (They had Central Ave. blocked off at Thomas, and had the left turn lane open, but weren't allowing left turns. I would have done it anyway, but there were 2 motorcycle cops right there, and one was motioning for me to turn right from the left-turn lane.)

Don't worry - once all this is over, it'll be like Oprah & Dr. Phil with all the news anchors analyzing the situation to death.<P ID="signature">______________
Dave</P>
 
Re: Meanwhile, at 10...

> And where is the largest news operation in Arizona? Channel
> 12 is nowhere to be found (NBC directive?), while the
> Repulsive does have it as the top story at azcentral.com -
> at least what passes for a lead story on that site - the
> Cooney and Curtis ad is bigger.
>
> Memo to Gannett: A hostage situation is an order of
> magnitude more important than a bunch of ice skaters in
> Italy (on tape-delay, yet)! Screw NBC! Do your job for the
> folks in your market!


Don't forget, the Neilsens came out today. 12 Probably decided not to jump ship, instead opting to try and save the sinking U.S.S. Olympiad, which has been torpedoed by Idol and Housewives.

Kinda noble of them if ya ask me......LOL
 
Re: Meanwhile, at 10...

I was watching a lot of the coverage from 12...they were streaming live video with their main anchors all during primetime...i think they might have run a ticker at the bottom of the screen during Olympics to send people to azcentral for live news.
 
In 12's Defense...

> I was watching a lot of the coverage from 12...they were
> streaming live video with their main anchors all during
> primetime...i think they might have run a ticker at the
> bottom of the screen during Olympics to send people to
> azcentral for live news.
>
In 12's defense, they did the hostage story at 6:30pm during what was supposed to be "The Olympic Zone". The only other station carrying the story at 6:30pm was KPHO during the valley's only 6:30pm newscast. 3, 10, and 15 were showing their normal syndicated programming. Very strange, I thought.

I don't have Cox Cable but I would have assumed that 3 would have broadcasted live on the news channel. Strange that they didn't.

That being said, there is actually a balance between covering this with long periods of nothing happening and getting the hostages out -- particularly if the guy had access to a television. The lack of coverage possibly caused him to give up earlier.
 
Re: In 12's Defense...

> > I was watching a lot of the coverage from 12...they were
> > streaming live video with their main anchors all during
> > primetime...i think they might have run a ticker at the
> > bottom of the screen during Olympics to send people to
> > azcentral for live news.
> >
> In 12's defense, they did the hostage story at 6:30pm during
> what was supposed to be "The Olympic Zone". The only other
> station carrying the story at 6:30pm was KPHO during the
> valley's only 6:30pm newscast. 3, 10, and 15 were showing
> their normal syndicated programming. Very strange, I
> thought.
>
> I don't have Cox Cable but I would have assumed that 3 would
> have broadcasted live on the news channel. Strange that
> they didn't.
>
> That being said, there is actually a balance between
> covering this with long periods of nothing happening and
> getting the hostages out -- particularly if the guy had
> access to a television. The lack of coverage possibly
> caused him to give up earlier.

Agreed, and yet I also agree with Keith -- tell Dick Ebersol that live breaking news coverage will actually do better for Phoenix ratings than the giant slalom.

It's the Winter Olympics. Phoenix is a desert town. Do the math.
>
 
Its sweeps time, they had all the cameras at the zoo looking at the new baby orangatang.

And they were exposing that big story about that thing in your house that could kill you at any moment! Oh, and the American Idol/Dancing with Stars/Skating with Celebrities/Survivor Exile Island news stories had to be put together!
 
Re: In 12's Defense...

> Agreed, and yet I also agree with Keith -- tell Dick Ebersol
> that live breaking news coverage will actually do better for
> Phoenix ratings than the giant slalom.
>
> It's the Winter Olympics. Phoenix is a desert town. Do the
> math.
> >
>
Well, I don't know but I bet it's hard to justify to NBC that you're not going to carry Olympic coverage. Can you say filling out a million forms in triplicate???

I will point out that I've found a whole lot of Olympics fans here in the Valley -- despite the weather. And I have a whole lot of friends in Seattle -- where the mountains are only 90 minutes away -- who aren't watching the Olympics.
 
Re: In 12's Defense...

> > Agreed, and yet I also agree with Keith -- tell Dick
> Ebersol
> > that live breaking news coverage will actually do better
> for
> > Phoenix ratings than the giant slalom.
> >
> > It's the Winter Olympics. Phoenix is a desert town. Do the
>
> > math.
> > >
> >
> Well, I don't know but I bet it's hard to justify to NBC
> that you're not going to carry Olympic coverage. Can you
> say filling out a million forms in triplicate???
>
> I will point out that I've found a whole lot of Olympics
> fans here in the Valley -- despite the weather. And I have
> a whole lot of friends in Seattle -- where the mountains are
> only 90 minutes away -- who aren't watching the Olympics.

Actually I read that Phoenix had the 7th highest numbers in the U.S. for viewing the Olympics. It did quite well here. Maybe desert rats like to fantasize about snowy settings. More likely it has to do with the large percentage of Valley residents who came from the upper Midwest. They like to look at snow -- just not shovel it.
>
 
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