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Reporters Away
We have been harping on stations that send reporters to cover stories outside of the tri-state area for some time now questioning both the journalistic and financial soundness of it. We have no problem with the networks sending their anchors out to report at the site of major stories like this, and all three did for a few days, but sending local reporters out is a different story. It took WABC sending two reporters to cover the the California wildfires, unlike the other stations in the city who relied on their network's/station group's affiliate services, for the Daily News to notice and ask questions on the practice.
WABC's News Director Kenny Plotnik told the paper, "We believe our reporters can best tell this story for the viewers." To us it seems like one of two things (and possibly both) - the station sees this as something that can get them some promotional millage or given the networks recent belt tightening it is a way for the network to have more people on the ground, but aren't budgeted to ABC News. Plotnick also told the paper that the station would continue the practice, "Stories as huge as this, we want to be there." We should also note that WABC was not the only ABC owned station to send reporters to the Southland, so it may have been dictated from above and Plotnick may be just be doing some spinning.
It really doesn't add anything to the coverage and on a practical level, the reporters lack a lot of the local knowledge that reporters who actually cover the area on their regular beat would have and it takes the reporter off covering stories in the tri-state area. A WCBS spokesperson told the paper of the benefits of having reporters based in the area cover the story, "They know the area and the terrain, as well as the details to report on the devastation, rather than have one of our [New York] people just go out there and report from there." WNBC's Dan Forman told the News, "We've made the decision that we are going to invest our money with this [geographical] area."
CNN Using Wildfires for Show Promotion
According to the Drudge Report, CNN's president Jon Klein in notes for a Monday news meeting said, "Great job on the 8 o'clock special on Friday; great job on the fire coverage. We shouldn't irresponsibly link this to Global Warming, but it is a nature story, so we should be able to use it to push the Planet in Peril special tomorrow night." And we thought CNN was the cable news network that was supposed not to have an agenda.
No News for Maria Shriver
Current California first lady and former NBC News correspondent Maria Shriver says she won't return to television news. At an event in California, she blamed the media circus over the death of Anna Nicole Smith. We can hardly blame her, since we are still dumbfounded by the amount of coverage that was dedicated to that idiotic story.
New GM for WABC
Rebecca Campbell will be the new General Manager for channel 7, joining the station from the ABC owned station in Philadelphia, WPVI. From what we have seen of her old station, which has a newscast that seems like a bad community theatre production of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy complete with 1970s vintage music yet somehow manages to dominate the ratings, we can only hope she won't do anything to start Bill Beutel spinning in his grave. She replaces Dave Davis who moved over to ABC News.
Viva Canceled
CBS' adaptation of the BBC's Blackpool had some thing lost in translation so Viva Laughlin has been canceled. It joins Fox's fakeality show Nashville and the CW's internet video show Online Nation on this season's list of the canceled.
Dropping Anchor?
The Post's Page Six is reporting that WCBS anchor Chris Wragge has split with Long Island native and anchor at the CBS station in Philadelphia Alycia Lane. The paper reports that Wragge was pressured by CBS 2 to split with Lane "because of her bad press."
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WABC does the right thing. Sending their own people helps put the station's personal stamp on a story ... doing stories their own way with their own people and crews. It's a good station morale booster as well.
Plus the ABC affiliate news service is for shite. Generic, and usually with green reporters.
And think of this:
Does the NY Times rely on stringers for big stories? The Daily News? No, they send their own reporters, and fly in the bigfoots if warranted.
Anyone who says anything else [including the WNBC guy who in his past life produced my avatar] is being cheap. WNBC used to travel people as much as WABC [or more, especially to Israel and Puerto Rico] before the NBC 2.0 budget cuts hit.
Were you ever in the business, or just a wannabe?
That's baloney. How good would the coverage of, say, the Atlantic Yards stories be if it was being done by some turista reporter flown in from KABC who's never been to NYC before except maybe on a brief vacation? Local news sucks bad enough. Non-local is even worse. You don't think there's enough news here in the city that needs local coverage? How can a station have a "personal stamp" when it's not a person? Besides, doing something personally isn't necessarily a good thing. That fake dentist that essentially killed that elderly woman should have stuck to what he knows, just like local reporters should stick to what they know.
Although, you know, maybe Jen should try to convince Jake that they need Gothamist's "personal stamp" on these stories and he should send her out to SoCal for a couple of weeks to cover them. Right, Jen? *wink, wink*
I have to side with using locals on the ground, rather than sending a team that is unfamiliar with the area. Half the time people from elsewhere can't even pronounce the town/area names and don't really know what/who is involved other than in a cursory way. Their lack of depth shows, and their glancing coverage just really upholds faulty and outdated stereotypes about So Cal that people outside the region hold dear. Many things are hyped for impact and the vision of what is actually occuring is false.
Hell, it's only local tv news. It ain't the big J.
What we say and criticize about the product rises way over the heads of the target demographic.
And if they see a familiar face in unfamiliar surroundings ... on that level it works and connects. So a consultant told me once.
And anyway ... in most of local tv news the field reporters are all transients themselves, hired close to the AFTRA minimum ... if the station even is a signatory. Seen local news in Los Angeles lately? Ugh.
Anywhoo ..
It's more fun traveling to London, Dubai or even Dubuque on the company coin for a compelling or breaking story ... lots more than riding the A train to yet another drug-related homicide that your producer wants as the lede for the 11, for sure.
I see two different spellings of Plotnik, fyi.
As for WABC: It's good to be the king.
'Cause there aren't any pretenders to the throne.
I could understand sending one reporter, but sending two for the wildfire is just stupid, isn't WABC always stupid with their news anyway? What WNBC and WCBS is doing is the right thing, use the power of the network and local affiliates, isn't that why there are television networks today? And with the news of the new GM at WABC, its just going to get worst for 7 as they head back their news from the 90's to 70's.
And if you do watch WABC news covering the wildfires while I watch WNBC, let me know if they use the KABC mic cubes.
Die local news die.