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WPRI's News Chopper 12 is back

I thought that thing was gone, but they used it during tonight's 11 PM broadcast. They used it to shoot pics of the mall where someone got shot with a BB Gun. The mall seems to have a roof partially made of glass. So the copter was shooting video of the inside of the mall right through that transparent roof. That was an interesting technique to see right inside the building.
 
bg02445 said:
You sure it wasn't just file footage of the mall? They have a lot of aerial footage of the state already.


Well the anchor made a point to say that Newschopper 12 is over the mall. They also had a graphic on the screen that said Chopper 12. So either the Copter is currently being used (or) the station is trying to pull a fast one. It definitely looked like new footage since the Copter appeared to really be trying to get a look inside the mall. This wasn't some generic looking flyover.
 
bg02445 said:
Hmmm well I think I've seen them do that before with other stories. Maybe they'll put the video on their site.


If they are just using file footage, it would seem a bit unethical to mislead people by giving the impression that these are new pictures. So for their sake I sure hope it's new video. Otherwise I'm going to be left with a sour taste in my mouth whenever I watch their newscasts now.
 
You are right. Watching the video on the website right now. I thought she had mentioned the News chopper during the story. Apparently not. I still think that using footage from News Chopper 12 gives viewers the false impression that these are recent pictures that actually have something to do with the story. WPRI is really treading a fine line by doing this. They should add the words "file footage" on the screen instead of making people think they still have a helicopter.
 
Skynet74 said:
You are right. Watching the video on the website right now. I thought she had mentioned the News chopper during the story. Apparently not. I still think that using footage from News Chopper 12 gives viewers the false impression that these are recent pictures that actually have something to do with the story. WPRI is really treading a fine line by doing this. They should add the words "file footage" on the screen instead of making people think they still have a helicopter.

Skynet, I think you and I and about a dozen others on this board are the only people who care. ;)
 
formeraa said:
Skynet, I think you and I and about a dozen others on this board are the only people who care. ;)


Maybe most people don't care, but the station should at least come clean. WPRI is trying so hard to get people to believe they they still have a copter in the air when they actually don't. It seems dishonest. When you watch a news story, you assume that all images are current. I don't think it's right to mispresent yoursellf by showing video that was taken 3 years ago, but never telling the viewer that it's just old footage. It's sneaky.
 
Skynet74 said:
formeraa said:
Skynet, I think you and I and about a dozen others on this board are the only people who care. ;)


Maybe most people don't care, but the station should at least come clean. WPRI is trying so hard to get people to believe they they still have a copter in the air when they actually don't. It seems dishonest. When you watch a news story, you assume that all images are current. I don't think it's right to mispresent yoursellf by showing video that was taken 3 years ago, but never telling the viewer that it's just old footage. It's sneaky.

I am not disagreeing with you. It's a losing battle. For example, here in Phoenix this morning, one of the freeways was closed due to a hay truck fire (probably spontaneous combustion as hot as it is here). They labelled it as "Breaking News", but then showed pictures that were obviously hours old (it was still DARK in the pictures).
 
formeraa said:
I am not disagreeing with you. It's a losing battle. For example, here in Phoenix this morning, one of the freeways was closed due to a hay truck fire (probably spontaneous combustion as hot as it is here). They labelled it as "Breaking News", but then showed pictures that were obviously hours old (it was still DARK in the pictures).

Geeez... I could have accepted "HOURS OLD FOOTAGE". But WPRI said breaking News, then slapped a Chopper 12 logo on the screen that actually filmed inside of the mall from up above. Now I learn that the footage had to be at least TWO YEARS OLD. Footage from earlier today would have been accceptable to me. But to pull out years old generic footage just comes off as way to dishonest.
 
Skynet74 said:
formeraa said:
I am not disagreeing with you. It's a losing battle. For example, here in Phoenix this morning, one of the freeways was closed due to a hay truck fire (probably spontaneous combustion as hot as it is here). They labelled it as "Breaking News", but then showed pictures that were obviously hours old (it was still DARK in the pictures).

Geeez... I could have accepted "HOURS OLD FOOTAGE". But WPRI said breaking News, then slapped a Chopper 12 logo on the screen that actually filmed inside of the mall from up above. Now I learn that the footage had to be at least TWO YEARS OLD. Footage from earlier today would have been accceptable to me. But to pull out years old generic footage just comes off as way to dishonest.

Well, you can have the satisfaction that you called them on it!
 
formeraa said:
Well, you can have the satisfaction that you called them on it!


Well I hope they understand my point. Tricking the viewer is not something you want to do on a newscast. Honesty and integrity is way to important. Once you lose trust, you end up losing viewers.
 
I was thinking today about this. It's very similar to another situation that I ran into a few years ago. The station was "News 9 San Antonio", one of the Time Warner 24 hour news outlets (now defunct). They practiced what I called "cut and paste" news. The anchor would do the news live for a couple of hours and, then, the next few hours were simply cut and pasted together from the first two hours. Weather was done on the 9's -- live or recorded -- depending on whether the weather person was there.

What was really deceiving was that they might have a "Live" report early in the day. Then, later in the day, they would cut and paste the same report in their newscast and call it "On Scene". I always wondered if the average person in San Antonio understood the difference between live and on scene.
 
Just goes to show you that there is a very fine line between truth and deception. Certain stations are coming way to close to that line. Now they are starting to cross it. Every other story is "BREAKING NEWS". Now Chopper 12 looks like it's over the mall. OH WAIT.... That's from 2008. Keep in mind that the Breaking News story is about a pedestrian getting shot by a BB Gun outside the mall. Also keep in mind that the Copter is zooming in through the glass ceiling to take video inside the mall. How awesome! Maybe we can see some of the detective work going on as it happens. OH WAIT>..... I forgot again. This is video from 2 years ago. Oh yeah... THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE A FREAKKING HELICOPTER ANYMORE! So I guess it makes perfect sense to pair that video up with a breaking news story! Right?

Talk about being purposely deceptive. WPRI should be ashamed of themselves. That was a bunch of crap they pulled.
 
If you really feel strongly about this, and I think you should, carping about it here isn't good enough. It may not be much, but I'd put a letter in their FCC file about this if I were you, and then I might even visit the station and make sure it's in there.

Yeah, yeah, I know: nobody cares about the FCC files and no one ever asks to see them. So what? It just might put the fear o' Gawd into someone in management, at least.

Is it so tough to at least Chyron "FILE FOOTAGE" over an old piece of--, well, file footage?
 
whdh does this alot now too only difference at least they have a real chopper but still every story is either breaking news, or developing story!! come on
 
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