WPRI Stages Sports Highlights

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Originally published in the New Bedford Standard Times.

http://www.ricentral.com/content/wpri-12-stages-footage-morrells-win-oswga-championship

Some people say you can’t always believe what you see on television.
In one case involving a local golfer, those people would be right.

On July 14, WPRI Channel 12 and its affiliate, WNAC Fox 64, showed highlights of North Kingstown resident and former Skippers’ golf star Samantha Morrell and her opponent Ali Prazak putting on the 18th hole at Laurel Lane Golf Club in West Kingston in the finals of the Ocean State Women’s Golf Association championship match in its nightly sportscast.
Problem was, what viewers saw never happened.

The footage, shot by reporter Sara Hogan and described putt-for-putt on air by WPRI sports director Eric Murphy, was staged, a serious breach of television journalism ethics.

“You have to be truthful to the viewers,” University of Rhode Island department of Journalism Professor and former WLNE Channel 6 reporter Barbara Meagher said. “When the viewers see this video of the golfers playing, you have to say ‘and after the tournament was over, they showed us some of their key [shots].’ You can’t make viewers believe that it was during the tournament.”
“No one realized it was fake,” Morrell said. “They said ‘I saw [the highlights] on the news and I’d say ‘I’ll tell you what really happened, because that isn’t what happened.’”

[EDIT*-truncated to conform to Fair Use standards]

Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfDPB90Ts-I

This seems incredibly dishonest of the station.

WPRI also still promotes its helicopter, NewsChopper 12, despite the fact that it last flew in 2008.

For instance, they'll say "NewsChopper 12 was over the Providence Place Mall, where a man fell from an escalator." They technically didn't mention WHEN exactly it was over the mall, but the footage is clearly years old.

They'll also often put a NewsChopper 12 logo over most helicopter footage, even if it is years old or looks like it may not have been shot by their helicopter.

 

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The YouTube link has been taken down; Deadspin still has the video. TVSpy and Poynter have picked up the story as well. I don't know what's more offensive - the staged video or the Sarah Hogan's flippant attitude (and illiteracy) about being called out. Not surprisingly, Hogan's Twitter account is now protected.

http://deadspin.com/5825774/rhode-i...some-television-magic-after-a-golf-tournament

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/wpri-admits-to-airing-staged-video-of-local-golf-tournament_b16426

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/...tv-station-stages-footage-of-golf-tournament/