Two Big Stories, Many Different Approaches

[searadiofreak]

Tonight we had two big stories conflict. The CA nutcase ex-cop who ultimately ended up dead, reported by some in the middle of the State Of The Union Address.

Anderson Cooper moved over from CNN to a special HLN Nancy Grace, where he and Nancy confirmed the CA nutcase to be dead during the last third of the Obama speech.

Some thoughts: None of the major networks, including cable, ran a scroll on the CA story during the The President's speech. And that is correct.

Anderson moving over to HLN, is somewhat questionable, but on the other hand, HLN was the first national network to announce a conclusion in the CA Big Bear story. CNN was all over the story within 30 seconds of the end of the SOTU address. Fox ignored it, even after the Republican response. Fox doesn't understand how to handle breaking news. They want to advance an agenda, as MSNBC coverage does, but I will admit I was not watching MSNBC tonight.

Proven once again, CNN does the best job with breaking news. No contest.

BTW, don't even think of bringing up what story is more important. Of course, the SOTU is more important, but CNN understands what captures more viewers.

 

[landtuna]

BTW, don't even think of bringing up what story is more important. Of course, the SOTU is more important, but CNN understands what captures more viewers.

If I were a resident of SoCal I would be much more concerned with the renegade cop than with a political speech that we've all heard before.

 

[searadiofreak]

So now LAPD is being extremely cautious and saying no body has been found.

Wow, a real life media mystery....

 

[landtuna]

MSNBC and many others are reporting a "burnt body" has been recovered from the cabin but it has not been identified.

 

[chime]

At least KNBC was quite inventive in running an NBC
Nightly News-and-coverage on 4.2 which normally runs
COZI. After the CBS coverage channel 2 joined the KCAL
9 coverage

 

[LKellerIII]

BTW, don't even think of bringing up what story is more important. Of course, the SOTU is more important, but CNN understands what captures more viewers.

If I were a resident of SoCal I would be much more concerned with the renegade cop than with a political speech that we've all heard before.

Agreed. Nothing against our President, but with the SOTU simulcasting on every major broadcast and cable news network, not to mention the radio and Internet, there's no reason CNN or another cable news network couldn't have broken away for the breaking SoCal story.

 

[firepoint525]

I seem to recall a similar situation with a Clinton SOTU in the '90s, on the same evening that the O.J. Simpson civil verdict came down. And not only that, I believe that that particular SOTU had already been rescheduled because of a conflict with something else, but I no longer remember what it was.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Cue the "Christopher Dorner was a Tea Party member under direct orders from Karl Rove
to act out in the middle of Obama's speech" conspiracy theories in 3.....2.....1....... ;D

 

[Robnoxious]

It was a unique situation in Los Angeles with most of the majors either utilizing their duopolies to cover both the SOTU and the Dorner story or their subchannels.

The KCBS-2/KCAL-9 duopoly split coverage, KCBS ran the SOTU and KCAL stuck with Dorner. KCAL was in a very advantageous position since they had a reporter who was literally caught in the middle of the initial gunfight. He was the only reporter in town with a true eyes on view.

KNBC-4 opted to keep the Dorner story on the main feed and piped in the SOTU on subchannel 4.2. KTLA-5 I believe stuck with the Dorner story and didn't show SOTU at all. KABC-7 went reluctantly with the SOTU and didn't utilize bumping one of the Livewell subchannels for Dorner and Fox O&O KTTV-11 aired SOTU and sister station KCOP-13 stayed on Dorner.

 

[justpassingthough]

It was a unique situation in Los Angeles with most of the majors either utilizing their duopolies to cover both the SOTU and the Dorner story or their subchannels.

The KCBS-2/KCAL-9 duopoly split coverage, KCBS ran the SOTU and KCAL stuck with Dorner. KCAL was in a very advantageous position since they had a reporter who was literally caught in the middle of the initial gunfight. He was the only reporter in town with a true eyes on view.

KNBC-4 opted to keep the Dorner story on the main feed and piped in the SOTU on subchannel 4.2. KTLA-5 I believe stuck with the Dorner story and didn't show SOTU at all. KABC-7 went reluctantly with the SOTU and didn't utilize bumping one of the Livewell subchannels for Dorner and Fox O&O KTTV-11 aired SOTU and sister station KCOP-13 stayed on Dorner.

I was watching KTLA and thought they were going to dump the story and pick up the SOTU, but once it became clear, I switched to KCBS. I thought it was actually odd they stuck with the story. Although its a captivating story of local importance, at the time of the SOTU, it had been roughly 3 hours with little new information and it seemed like a waiting game.

 

[LKellerIII]

It was a unique situation in Los Angeles with most of the majors either utilizing their duopolies to cover both the SOTU and the Dorner story or their subchannels.

The KCBS-2/KCAL-9 duopoly split coverage, KCBS ran the SOTU and KCAL stuck with Dorner. KCAL was in a very advantageous position since they had a reporter who was literally caught in the middle of the initial gunfight. He was the only reporter in town with a true eyes on view.

KNBC-4 opted to keep the Dorner story on the main feed and piped in the SOTU on subchannel 4.2. KTLA-5 I believe stuck with the Dorner story and didn't show SOTU at all. KABC-7 went reluctantly with the SOTU and didn't utilize bumping one of the Livewell subchannels for Dorner and Fox O&O KTTV-11 aired SOTU and sister station KCOP-13 stayed on Dorner.

Back in the "good old days" (60s and 70s), only the Big 3 would have run SOTU - KTLA, KTTV, KHJ-TV, and KCOP would not have run the President, regardless. Of course, in those days only KTLA and KTTV had real news departments, but they would have been on the Dorner story - KTLA with live coverage in a heartbeat, KTTV would have taken a bit longer.

 

[mavtv]

It was a unique situation in Los Angeles with most of the majors either utilizing their duopolies to cover both the SOTU and the Dorner story or their subchannels.

The KCBS-2/KCAL-9 duopoly split coverage, KCBS ran the SOTU and KCAL stuck with Dorner. KCAL was in a very advantageous position since they had a reporter who was literally caught in the middle of the initial gunfight. He was the only reporter in town with a true eyes on view.

KNBC-4 opted to keep the Dorner story on the main feed and piped in the SOTU on subchannel 4.2. KTLA-5 I believe stuck with the Dorner story and didn't show SOTU at all. KABC-7 went reluctantly with the SOTU and didn't utilize bumping one of the Livewell subchannels for Dorner and Fox O&O KTTV-11 aired SOTU and sister station KCOP-13 stayed on Dorner.

Back in the "good old days" (60s and 70s), only the Big 3 would have run SOTU - KTLA, KTTV, KHJ-TV, and KCOP would not have run the President, regardless. Of course, in those days only KTLA and KTTV had real news departments, but they would have been on the Dorner story - KTLA with live coverage in a heartbeat, KTTV would have taken a bit longer.

I thought it was strange that KMEX-34 Univision did not run neither the SOTU or cover the Dormer case as they ran their usual programming while KYHY-22 Mundofox did run the SOTU. Never check KVEA-52 Telemundo but I would suspect they too ran the SOTU.