I liked this idea an IFz visitor suggested for an article / discussion thread dedicated to the smaller stories appearing daily in our local media. These are the stories that are quite interesting to discuss, but on their own do not always merit a full article. If a particular topic gains traction with many comments in a short time, we can always publish an article on that topic and summarize what was already said. Does that make sense? If a particular topic generates lots of buzz, we can give it a dedicated place for that buzz, keeping this thread for general stories. If this thread goes into a high comment count quickly, we can start republishing quarterly or monthly. That’s how we roll around here, baby.
There is a guideline (or maybe it is law, I’m still drinking my first cup of coffee) that excerpts should not be more than 20% of the original piece. I’m not saying you need to count all the words and multiply by .2 to determine how much you can quote. Please just try to keep it well below that 20% threshold so we can respect the original publishers’ product. The point of this is to express reaction to local news, not to be a republisher of local news. Paraphrasing is also a great solution, repeating what the news essentially conveyed but expressed in your own words.
If you comment on a new story, please include a link to that news story. The local television stations usually keep dedicated pages for each story, and they have been keeping their stories online indefinitely. That is a good thing, and helps us help them with proper linking and citations. The River City Weekly appears to have switched from publishing each page of their issues on separate PDFs to publishing each issue as a single PDF. I think it would be fair to link to that PDF issue and refer to the specific page for a news item. The Post Register only allows paid subscribers to access their stories, so do not worry about linking to their stories. We have sufficient links to the PR site throughout IdahoFallz.com. Please do mention if a story came from the PR, though. If they ever switch to open access we would be happy to deep link directly to their stories.
So what’s happening in local news, and what do you think about it?
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I just realized I missed a part of this. Feel free to comment on the stories that get published by our local news media.
Feel free to also comment on HOW our local news media publishes their stories. This can be about the layout, the pictures/videos used, the words chosen, if you think it was misrepresented or biased, etc.
Personally I find the differences interesting when news outlets cover the same story. Lately I have found KPVI to be the most complete news outlet among the TV stations, but that’s just my limited exposure.
What do you think?
Um, quick note about layout. The online PR recently changed its theme, also, and hmmm, not knowing who you are, Joe, either you and that person are similarly minded, or the two sites are borrowing ideas from each other…
I can’t comment on the local broadcast news, because having worked for a local station in the 80s (and my spouse still does) I have a prejudice about local news broadcasts that may not be valid.
The 3 different websites are coming along, too, although I don’t spend much time on them because I prefer newspaper stories that have substance instead of soundbites, voice-overs and 30 second packages, etc.
Something I’ve noticed, and I don’t know how to fix that, is that I’ll have read online the same news I get the next morning in the PR…almost word for word, as if they all used the same source (like AP, for example).
And because I read the paper online, I no longer am annoyed with the poor physical placement of a story. Sometimes it seemed ridiculously planted in a spot that made it have to be continued on another page, then that followup spot was poorly chosen, etc. Now I no longer have that issue.
And I thought you had already been doing this concept of discussing news stories…from time to time you’d comment on a particular item you had read about in the PR. So maybe I’m missing the point of today’s post…
My PR subscription ended a month or so ago, so I haven’t seen their new layout. I just checked it, and like some things there better than others, but at least they tried something new.
You’re right, we’ve had been commenting here and there if an existing article or discussion thread here had something to do with a news story, but if we didn’t have something already related and didn’t want to start a new full article on that topic, it didn’t get put up here. Now it can, we’ll see how this develops.
BTW, I get ideas suggested all the time to me for articles here. A few I go ahead and publish myself, but many I do not. It’s not that the idea(s) are bad, it’s just that I have no experience on the topic. I try to encourage those folks to write an article themselves, but most seem to think it’s a monumental task.
I wouldn’t sweat writing an article. I think a great article can be had in just three paragraphs. For instance, a buddy wanted to write about the local UFC fighting scene, and he is an avid follower and attendee. I have no clue about UFC, I’m just not into it. All he needs to do is write three quick paragraphs to get that topic going, and I bet it would be a great discussion. If you don’t want to register and use our wordpress-powered system, you can just email it to me and I’ll publish it under your name (or username).
I find the resulting discussions are often more valuable than the original article, so don’t sweat writing a few paragraphs on a topic you consider important. The focus shifts quickly 8^)
For my first critique of a Post Register news article, I’ve selected a very small, nondescript news item that ran on Page A7 of the Saturday, February 2, P-R. The item’s headline states, “Volunteers to offer help to homeless.” The subhead continued, “The second annual Homeless Stand Down will give Idaho Falls’ needy a chance to get warm and get help.”
Upper Valley Reporter Kendra Evensen wrote the 13 paragraph story that concludes below the fold on Page A9.
It’s good that the P-R decided to print an item about the event. Time, date, place and event name were correctly stated. Last year’s attendance was cited. Some relevant and well chosen quotes were included. All-in-all this would appear to be a decent piece of local journalism.
So what’s my criticism? It’s twofold. First, there were many local charitable and volunteer organizations that worked together to make this event successful. The article failed to include a listing of all of them. For example, the VHHOC (Veteran’s Helping Hand Outreach Center) devoted many volunteer staff hours to preparation for this event. I know there were others. Organizing volunteer events such as this one is often truly a thankless effort. It’s really nice to see that organizations and key individuals responsible for the success of such an event receive at least one line of type. True, I know that the people who staged this event weren’t doing it to receive any recognition. I’m just saying that the local newspaper could surely have spared an additional paragraph or two to credit each of the participants. Such wrap up paragraphs are generally considered a bread and butter element of news items of this genre.
The second criticism is lack of follow up on this story. I’ve waited until Monday morning to write this critique. I hoped to see follow up in the Sunday paper. I hoped perhaps a small squib might have made it into today’s paper. Nope, no such luck. Perhaps you’ve noticed that most Idaho Falls events receive some sort of follow up coverage–even if such follow up smacks of tokenism. For example, the Japanese cultural event Saturday at the Art Museum received one black and white picture. That’s typical and that’s OK. However, it really perplexes me as to why the P-R chose not to print some follow up on the Homeless Stand Down.
They could have sent a reporter over to interview one or more willing participants. Chances are at least a couple of the homeless might have been willing to talk to a reporter. They could have printed a picture of volunteers working on behalf of others. Or they could have simply reported on how many people actually showed up. Frankly, I think the issue of homelessness is a rather important issue. Does the lack of follow up coverage imply the P-R wishes to ignore the issue when given an opportunity to actually report on the “face” of local homelessness? I don’t know. But it is a question worth asking.
To recap: I’m glad the P-R provided some coverage of the event. I’m sad all of the participants were not credited. I’m puzzled about lack of follow up on the event.
Thanks for the opportunity to discuss a specific article in the P-R, Monte
Tuesday morning the P-R delivered an interesting opportunity for commentary. You will find today’s subject located on Page C6. This is a classic “you be the judge” news item. First the description, then the commentary.
The item is one column headlined, “Snow alert in effect for I.F”
The subhead states, “Vehicles left in the wrong place at the wrong time will be towed, officials said.” The byline is simply “Post Register.”
The total space allocation for the story is 10 column inches. About six inches is actually text. Two-thirds of the 9-paragraph story is devoted to technical descriptions of parking zones. And that’s it.
OK, now for the commentary. First, put yourself in the editor’s shoes. Ask yourself these questions: A) Is this story newsworthy? B) Where should it be placed in the Tuesday layout? C) What are your alternatives for placement? D) Should anything else accompany the story? E) Is this story just annoying but necessary boilerplate copy? Hum…so much to ponder, so little time.
Based on the treatment & placement of this item, here’s how we think the editor answered the above questions: A) Hardly; B) Where ever I can shoe horn it in; C) Few & None; D) Can’t think of any; E) Got that right!
This would appear to be a classic case of an editor’s “same old, same old” attitude–something like “seen one snow story, seen ‘em all” or “oh, please, not another snow story!” Naturally, we beg to differ.
A Snow Alert in Idaho Falls is a hard news item. It’s not a feature story, not op-ed, not an editorial and not sports, although that’s arguable. It’s just a hard news item. As such, it qualifies for much better placement that Page C6. The front page of Section C would have been the appropriate place to layout the story. Granted, it’s not as sexy as a grizzly bear-rancher compensation story but, hey, the grizzly story barely qualifies as “hard news.” After all, it’s simply a proposal from some advisory panel. The grizz story could have easily run on Page C6 while the local hard news could have run on the front of Section C. At a bare minimum, the little teaser in the top left of the C-Section Banner could have pointed to the Snow Alert instead of the Dean’s List.
Believe it or not, there are still people who do not listen to local radio or TV. I’m one of them and so that’s why I depend on the P-R for my local news. If I’d been just skimming the paper as I do some days, I would have missed the Snow Alert story because of its placement. But at least I’d know that some people think ranchers ought to get paid for grizzly livestock kills!
OK, let’s move on. My main criticism of this story has to do with the Big Picture of this particular Idaho Falls winter weather scene.
So far, the P-R has done a lousy job of providing readers with overall perspective about A) How much actual snowfall have we received and B) How this winter compares to previous similar winters. (The precipitation figures in the P-R’s daily weather summary do not translate to snowfall equivalents.)
Ironically, yesterday, I spent considerable time attempting to determine the “official” Idaho Falls “snow on ground” statistic. Yes, Virginia, many NWS offices keep and distribute such data. But not the Pocatello NWS Office and not the Idaho Falls Airport. Calls to two TV stations ended up fruitless as well. I even recently emailed the Pocatello NWS about this issue to no avail.
Just how much show did we receive “officially” yesterday and so far for February and, for that matter, for the month of January. If you wanted to know those figures, you sure would be out of luck looking for them in the Post Register.
Did you happen to try to park downtown yesterday? If you did, you know it was a royal mess. I observed several people “stuck in place” at curbside parking spots. That’s somewhat newsworthy.
Who actually declares a “Snow Alert?” What’s the real criteria for such a declaration? Does the declaration change snow abatement tactics? How much money has IF spent on snow removal so far this year? Are we on budget? In the red? How is the overtime for snow removal affecting the city’s budget? Maybe you aren’t interesting in the answers to these questions–maybe you are. I sure know I am.
I don’t have time to call around City Hall finding answers to these questions. If I did I would. That’s what City Reporters are for. They are supposed to nose around municipal government and ask these arcane things and then write them up in a way people understand and remember.
Frankly, I felt that today’s placement and treatment of the “Snow Alert” story shows that our local newspaper staff really doesn’t give a hoot about “yet another snow story.” They shoved it off into a dark back corner of the newspaper and spent their spare time tweaking the front page. By the way, that Tuesday front page looks really nice and is a fine job of editing and layout! Great Work!
I can sure understand how editors tire of the “same old, same old syndrome” but sometimes a snow story deserves a little better treatment, more details, additional perspective and some real “meat.”
In any event, I billed this story as a “you be the judge” item. Perhaps you’d care to share your perspective(s) about this particular item. After all, newspapers are designed to serve a wide and diverse demographic. “You can please some of the people sometimes but not all of the people all of the time,” is probably every editor’s secret motto.
Thanks again for the opportunity to get nit-picky about a P-R article. Monte
Wow! and I thought OK4now wrote novel-type comments…
interesting points to ponder though….
I think it would be nicer when they do these snow advisories if they include a little graphic explaining what days which streets are being cleared. They should only have to create it once since the city has the same schedule for clearing snow. The PR usually has nice graphics made by that Steve Fischbach (sp?) so I think they could do an informative graphic for the snow alerts.
Joe,
Here you go:
http://www.ci.idaho-falls.id.us/ccadmin/document/documentdownload.asp?Name=Snow Map%2Epdf&File=%2Fmain%2Fdocuments%5CSnow Map%2Epdf&docID=1007
All I see is a database error, no map/image/anything.
Joe,
Can you fix the link? It didn’t include the whole thing.
http://www.ci.idaho-falls.id.us/ccadmin/document/documentdownload.asp?Name=Snow_Map%2Epdf&File=%2Fmain%2Fdocuments%5CSnow Map%2Epdf&docID=1007
It should direct you to a pdf map of the different zones, etc.
http://www.ci.idaho-falls.id.us/ccadmin/document/documentdownload.asp?Name=Snow_Map%2Epdf&File=%2Fmain%2Fdocuments%5CSnow_Map%2Epdf&docID=1007
Hey, Johnnie, your comment is one more area where the local paper seems to be news lite, and not real deep stories with substance. What a natural opportunity for them to take advantage of, and I would be one of those who would love to see the answers to all those weather questions, but wouldn’t want to take the time to do the investigation, myself.
Maybe we are expecting too much from them? I can see there would be times when something we think is a natural idea for a great story, might slip by without much comment on their end, as they didn’t realize the depth of the interest (although angles involved with this heavy winter weather after years of little precip seems to be a no-brainer).
Since they seem to peruse this site, maybe this post and the comments will jostle some priorities or create some assignment-editor ideas.
Just a quick note to compliment the P-R on giving so much coverage Sunday to the Ernie Pyle death photo. They used the entire back page of the “F” Section. Way to go, P-R! I had stumbled on the story a few days ago via Google Trends. I am a lifelong Pyle Fan and so I was totally immersed in every scrap of information I could find about this story. The story probably won’t mean much to you unless you are an Ernie Pyle Fan However, for those of us who ARE Pyle Fans, this story holds incredible fascination. As such, it’s a “niche” story appealing to a very narrow range of readers. Obviously, one or more people at the P-R are Pyle Fans. From what I found on the Net a few days ago when this story broke, the P-R found and printed as much as they possibly could. KUDOS to the P-R for giving this story the coverage it deserves. THANK YOU, Monte
I found it interesting that I read such a short quip on KPVI about Larry Craig being slapped by the senate ethics committee, yet the AP story was much longer and reported a much harsher rebuke than KPVI reported.
Let’s analyze this news story among our outlets:
AP Headline: “Ethics Panel Says Craig Acted Improperly”
Article word count: 673
KPVI Headline: “Ethics panel pokes Craig for using campaign cash for legal bills”
Article word count: 177
KIDK Headline: “Ethics panel pokes Craig for using campaign cash for legal bills”
Article word count: 177
LocalNews8 (KIFI) Headline: “Senate Ethics Committee: Larry Craig Acted Improperly”
Article word count: 141
I’m glad Monte brought up this thread to analyze the news reporting, because I see a few interesting things here. Obviously KPVI and KIDK shared the same story on this, using the exact same headline and word count. I thought the local news folks swore they did not share stories anymore?
Isn’t it strange how KPVI and KIDK reworded that headline to make it seem like Craig had a jolly old time with that ethics committee? Why they POKED him, oh what fun that must have been, the report could not have been too serious, could it?
Isn’t it also strange how the KPVI and KIDK headlines focus on the improper campaign cash issue rather than the real point of the report: that the ethics committee essentially found Craig to be a liar.
Now I can understand I’m comparing a newswire article to a TV news segment, which is like comparing organic food to McDonald’s. Plus the AP story includes backstory that we already know around here. So let’s look at the gist of it, how did these local networks inform their southeast Idaho audience on the essential facts?
The AP story states the keywords
“improper”
“discredit”
“evade legal consequences”
“knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently”
“do not appear credible”
“continuing disregard of ethics”
“improper attempt by you to use your position and status”
KPVI/KIDK reported the keywords “improper” and “continuing disregard of ethics”. They failed to report the rest.
KIFI/LocalNews8 reported the keywords “improper”, “discredit”, and “evade legal consequences”. They failed to report the rest.
So we have two local stations completely changing the report around to essentially cover up the rebuke. Local News 8 did a slightly better job but not much (they must not have gotten bought off by the local party bosses yet).
I know somebody is going to say I need to get a life and I probably do 8^) but hey it caught my attention, and with copy/paste/find this actually only took a few minutes.
What do you think about how our local media reports on these issues?
lets not…
The three news outlets share news stories ALL the time. I change back and forth when commericals some on (because I can’t stand wasting time watching commercials) and I constantly see the same stories many times worded exactly the same and often times the same video coverage.
Case in point….the recent accident on the hwy out to the site that involved the INL bus. That same video AND story played exactly the same on all three local channels. Exactly! That’s just one example, there are dozens of stories each week that bounce between the networks without and changes to them.
They may have changed up the Larry Craig story a bit, but many local stories they dont.
I’m a former local news employee, and my spouse still works there. We can both vouch for unshared stories. However, you’re still likely to see the same video if the video comes from an independent source such as a third party…a private person’s camera, a site camera, a state police camera, etc. By the time the news stations can get a live truck or photographer to the scene, many times the action has ended, and everyone is stuck using what they can access from that third party.
And the stories can sound very similar, if they come from the same source (AP, CNN, etc) and are merely copied/pasted into their site.
I used to produce the news in the 80s, I tried to reword national stories in my own way. I never used video footage from another local station, nor did I ever copy their wording.
I don’t know about the websites, who manages them, and where they get their information, but it certainly seems strange to have identical wording on two of them, unless they both subscribe to the identical web news source. Seems this story would be a lesson to them to put a tiny bit of effort into a local spin, even when they normally wouldn’t think they should have to.
First, I want to commend Joe on his MOST EXCELLENT content analysis. Way to go, Joe, ya done good! That’s a genuinely inspiring example of critical analysis of news coverage. I sure wish more people did that sort of stuff. Although rare, it sure is appreciated. VERY MUCH!
Yes, I noticed that issue myself but I didn’t go to the lengths that Joe did to document the similarities. Nemesis is quite right, as well, news is a “commodity” and sometimes everyone has the same old, same old. It goes with the turf of commodity-based media outlets.
Frankly, I always believe that any garden variety reporter can use a little personal initiative by investigating all of the news feeds so that they can add their own “spin” to a story.
Let’s take the Sen. Craig story. While reading this story, I went to roughly 12 different news feed websites looking for different angles and interpretations of the report. The results were inevitable.
With enough research, anyone can find many widely diverse reports about the same event. By reading many such accounts of the same story, any astute reader can begin to piece together a unique, personal perspective about that story. Yep, it’s time consuming and tough. No argument there. But, in this day and age, it’s more or less your only hope of getting a wee tad bit closer to the so-called truth of any given story. No one’s really going to know the truth–but we can all try to get a little closer to the source and hope the truth gets a little closer to us. I don’t know if that makes any sense at all–but I sure hope it does. Thanks for reading this rambling post.
Cheers, Monte.
The accident with the INL bus wasn’t an AP story and it wasn’t shot by somebody with a camcorder or cell phone. It was professionally done and the same story showed on all three networks.
Like I said, this isn’t the only instance and I’m not talking about national storys that get picked up by the AP or CNN, I’m talking about LOCAL storys. They get shared all the time between networks. I don’t care of you’re the president of NBC and your spouse is a local reporter, I know what I saw AND what I see on a weekly basis. I would urge you to start channel surfing between the three networks during the nightly news and you’ll see what I mean.
JoseCuervo…I’ve rewritten this response several times. I started out with something sarcastic but I value civil discourse so I deleted that and ended up with this:
I don’t know what the situation was that you saw for that story, as I did not see it. But my inside knowledge says that you are mistaken in your belief that the local broadcast news crews share their locally shot video and stories, as the competition to be exclusive and superior and get the limited market share for local news is very fierce.
I don’t think I can convince you otherwise, but I agree that you are entitled to your opinion.
Say what you will, I know what I saw. You can have all the “inside knowledge” in the world, but I know what I saw. Why not try to go on each of the news websites and pull the story up and look at the video?
This isn’t the only incident, but the most recent. I watch the nightly news every single night and I switch back and forth between all three networks, so I know it happens frequently.
And like I said these are LOCAL stories, not national that come from the AP.
Here’s what I think would be cool:
A Semi-Annual Media Citizens Forum.
All of the local media would be required to participate. (Who would require them? Who knows?) Anyway, let’s assume they all “bought” into the idea. And they actually had to sit in front of the citizens and answer questions and be accountable for their actions and stories.
Is this realistic? NO. It’s not. It is a good idea? Well, maybe.
Personally, I’d sure like to see it. Call it a fantasy–but what the heck, wouldn’t it be cool to see the Civic Auditorium filled with curious and inquiring minds? Yeah, dream on, Monte.
Anyway, here’s what I am trying to say–I think that people are beginning to demand and expect more from their local media. Whether is be file swapping, in-breeding of stories, whatever you want to call it–frankly, I think the local media here in Idaho Falls is taking their clients “for granted.”
And, you know what? I think that the people in this community know better and deserve better. And I think the people here have the power to make their local media accountable.
Remember that movie–”if you build it, they will come?”
Well, I am of the opinion that “If You Visualize it, it will happen!”
I have to tell you I am real tired of being chumped by the local media. There’s absolutely no excuse for their collective behavior.
Yeah, the P-R says it has a Citizens Advisory Panel but they must have given them all Prozac or something. And what has the electronic media done? Not a whole heck of a lot.
I don’t know if the posts on this forum amount to a hill of beans.
Maybe it does–maybe it will. Who knows? All I can say is that if the real people in Idaho Falls just simply lay back and let their media roll them over the coals like some burgers on a summer grill, then I guess they get what they deserve.
If you are willing to stand up and be counted, then I say, DO IT!
Let those media people know what you care about-stop arguing between yourselves–stop being “divided & conquered.”
Get a united voice–whatever it might be and SPEAK IT! Demand better coverage. Demand to be heard. YOU are the customers. YOU are the clients. Stop being chumps–let ‘em have it!
Well, that’s my two cents worth today. Thanks for reading. Monte.
What are folks’ experiences with the local news’ online video playback. I’ve used all three network stations’ online video playback before, but this morning I’m unable to get Local News 8’s video to play.
First I got an error page full of possible errors, so I switched from my preferred Firefox browser to IE7. Then the video played back audio, but the video was a bunch of scraggly colored lines. I thought I read their site prefers Windows Media Player 7, they don’t like WMP 8. I checked my version at 9, so I downloaded the latest update to 11. Same scraggly lines. They have not seriously tied their video playback to a five year old technology, have they?
They seemed to have the only video from the city economic summit that I wanted to watch. Why are they using WMP technology anyways? Go for the larger audience, LN8, it’s called flash video players, most video software can publish in that format and 99% of online users have a working flash player.
Well, I don’t ever know if what I write is appropriate. Afterall, I AM relatively new here–having only spent four years in Custer County before moving to the Big City. Sometimes, I have to admit, Custer seems a tad more desirable than the ongoing intrigues of Eye-Eff & Bonneville.
After reading Joe’s most recent post, I guess I am at a loss. How in the world could this MSA* not be totally up to speed on the latest and the greatest? I mean, this is a total no-brainer. But apparently not.
The longer I live here, the more I have to wonder “who’s on first?”
Who’s managing this team? What’s the batting order? Who’s the Lead Off Hitter? Who bats cleanup? Geeze.
Idaho Falls has a LOT going for it. But you’d never really know it from the way people here mumbo-jumbo their way through things.
Has anybody every thought of using the word “CELEBRATE” in connection with Idaho Falls? (Yes, I know about the “Melaleuca Freedom Celebration.”) That doesn’t count in what I am talking about here.
Idaho Falls has a LOT to celebrate–day in and day out. What the people of this place do is simply incredible. Sometimes I think the word “celebrate” is an understatement.
There has to be someway to find an avenue to express all of the ways and means of an ongoing Idaho Falls Celebration. I personally don’t know how to facilitate such a lofty goal. But I am hoping that somehow, someway, the people who populate this forum/blog/whatever will find a way!
Cheers, Monte
*MSA = Metropolitan Statistical Area
Each of our local news outlets has their own distinctive flavor, and I’ve been liking KIDK’s lately. I like the stories they do like this one
http://www.kidk.com/news/15862017.html
where they discovered hot faucets at area business get hot enough to scald kids’ hands. Wow, I never though of that before, and now I will watch for it and be more careful with my kids. I have been places where the faucets burn your hands and just didn’t think about it being a problem. Anyway, KIDK has been doing a lot of these uniquely consumer-oriented and locally-focused stories lately, I like them.
I saw that story on the news last night. I believe it was completely “blown out of proportion”. Tell me something….WHO washes their hands with “just hot water”? It’s just common sense, when you wash your hands you turn on both the hot AND the cold to make it warm. Even my 3 y/o knows that! She washes her hands by herself all the time and never has a problem scalding them with hot water. And I’ve actually turned up the thermostat on our hot water heater to make sure everyone in our house has enough hot water when getting ready in the mornings.
I just thought the story went completely overboard. Personally I’d rather there be plenty of hot water, because you can always make it warm with the cold water. DUH! And children under 3 y/o shouldn’t be going to public restrooms by themselves to go potty and/or wash their hands anyways. It was along the same lines of “the coffee is too hot”. Well guess what….it’s SUPPOSED TO BE HOT PEOPLE!!! We’ve become a nation of whiners and it’s freakin ridiculous! Did they seriously not have anything better to report about?
Hot water is supposed to be HOT period! If you don’t want it that hot, turn on the cold water to make it WARM. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out.
Welllll, those are good points, too.
I liked this Boise-station news story about a Nampa shooting, it was helpful because they took a moment to provide the Google map to the location.
http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/ktvbn-feb2208-police_shoot.19666f0f.html
Very helpful for consumers, very easy for reporters to get this information. I hope we see more of this used.
Good to see lots of people getting in “hot water!”
Honestly, I can see the purpose of such a hot water story. I’ve been “burned” a couple of times myself. Call it stupidity, call it whatever. It’s fact. So I am glad to see some media calling attention to this hot water story.
Well, I didn’t come aboard tonight to goof off in Hot Water. I came onboard to talk about how media these days deal with controversy.
Be careful–this could be a 150 degree story–watch your hands!!!!
What’s hot? Well, it’s the NYT’s mistreatment of John McCain in their truly stupid story that has rec’d universal ridicule. OK, we all know that. No story there. What’s the story?
Well, it’s that the editors of the New York Times–let me repeat–the New York Times–have basically engaged Citizen Journalists in a dialog over this story. Yeah, go figure. But it’s true.
Check out this link from the Houston Chronicle. Defies imagination.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5562785.html
So what I see here happening is that Mainstream Media–including the MOST stuck up Media of the Genre is finally getting the message:
DEAL WITH US.
This is a MOST refreshing message and a MOST refreshing trend.
I would hope that the Post-Register is taking note.
Cheers, Monte
Businesses are required to have their hot water heaters at a certain temperature; However, there is a big difference in what some businesses set their temperatures at. Some homeowners with small children set their water heaters thermostats at a lower setting to avoid scalding a child. Some business’ should take a look at what setting they use and find a temperature that won’t get them in hot water with parents of a child that gets burned in the restaurant. I think Channel 3’s report is a step in the right direction to be preventative rather than waiting for a tragedy to happen.
I have a compliment for the editor(s) of Monday’s P-R. I am an obsessive-compulsive news reader. I read at least 100 news articles each day and on weekends, the total can go as high as 200. I rarely send a link to any of those articles to anyone. However, yesterday, I found an article that really captured my imagination and I sent a link about it to all my friends & family. However, the web article was “too short” and I knew there was more to the story plus there should have been at least one photo as well.
Imagine my surprise this morning when the entire article with picture showed up on Page C3 of the Post Register! YEE-HAW! WOW–I was blown away that the Register editor(s) decided to allocate 36 column inches to the story with a COLOR picture, too. There are over 20 inches of text in the 36-inch total news hole. It’s a genuine complete article and one in which the picture is essential to complete the story. As is the case with many Idaho residents, we have spent a lot of time on the Oregon Coast so this story and picture has direct personal relevance. It’s a real coastal classic, so to speak.
I know the P-R editors have lots of choices for filler on any given day. I want to thank them wholeheartedly for choosing this particular story–Ya hit a home run, folks! Keep up the good work!
Cheers, Monte
So how do ya’ll think the local news media handled that high speed chase incident last night?
Someone complained in our chatbox about them breaking into regular programming after the chase was over, but I don’t think that’s a valid complaint. Since the last suspect was not taken into custody until 11pm, doing the breaking news at what 9:30ish was very appropriate.
KIDK 3 was a mixed bag for me. The SUV passed their station three times and KIDK only got a camera shot of once. Why didn’t they have a live camera out there? Why did they stop rolling and miss the other two passes? Then again they may have heard it on the police scanner only seconds before the SUV passed.
Local News 8 was reporting from a “very reliable source” (their heavy emphasis) that the incident was over, then BCSO Metcalf came on and said no, one other suspect was still at large. So much for that reliable source, ehh?
Overall I think the local media handled themselves fairly well for this incident. Karole Honas did a great job directing the Local News 8 studio live and on the fly. The young on-scene reporters handled themselves fairly well with reporting and questioning BCSO.
But what do you think?
I think that as a general rule the local media is ill prepared to handle a bigger case such as this one. From watching the activity last night not enough questions were being asked for clairification. Yes I agree with Joe that more could have been done to show the public what was going on. The Reverse 911 did not reach all of the residents in the neighborhood and at that point the media coverage was important. You also have to consider that Reverse 9-1-1- was made at a time when Landlines were standard. Now with alot of people dropping Quest and going for cell phones there must have been alot of people that did not get the message. Our local news media needs to take a more proactive approach. For years they kept friendly in these type of situations to keep information flowing for their newscasts. However it is usually the reporter that asks the hard questions that really developes the true story of what has occurred. Channel 3 has started a Speak Out segement, but there needs to be more indepth investigative reporting. There are alot of stories out there that just go cold. Some of this is due to the fact that local news media pays low salaries and just as they get experienced they leave. As a result you frequently have someone out there who is trying hard, but just doesn’t ask that really important question. Interview the victims of the car theft, talk to families about the history of the suspect who was shot, interview some of the involved officers to see what they saw, Ask if the people who are pulled into investigate have any friendships with the involved officers, ask the prosecutor about criminal charges that are pending on the remainding suspects. This is one of the reasons Idahofallz.com is going so good the hard questions are often asked in this forum
I’m not sure I understand how the news media was supposed to know enough information on Wednesday night to ask these hard questions. We know a lot more today than we did last night. The news media was only given whatever the police gave them, which was really not much until the next afternoon.
As far as KIDK missing the camera shot of the chased vehicle driving by their station. I think it’s fair to assume that once they drove past nobody knew they would turn around and go back the other way. You would naturally assume they had passed the location and were not coming back. At least I would probably assume that. If they had any idea the vehicle would be coming back I think they would have been recording their camera shot.
I think some of the speculation and false reporting of information from a “reliable source” could have been avoided if the police had assigned an Incident Commander who could make statements to the media. It seems like that’s what they do in a lot of other places. The police didn’t really make any statements until the next day, leaving news reporters to speculate.
As to the local media being ill-prepared to handle a situation as big as this one, I’m pretty thankful that they aren’t used to doing it more!
Very good point Guest. I think there was way too much misinformation being thrown around since the very beginning last night and most of the day today. And while I also agree that our local reporters need to be asking more thorough questions and demand more answers. I can understand during the heat of the moment it can be difficult to get any straight answers which is why things were so sketchy during the newcasts last night. I think it’s important that a spokesman for both the city & county officers should be made readily available in situations like this, to answer any and all questions for all of our reporters. Which is usually the case, but more often than not, their not available until days afterwards.
Which kind of makes sense in order for them to be able to give the complete facts of a situation.
I agree with other posters….it seems like everytime we get a really good reporter around here, they end up moving away for a better paying job in a bigger market. Which I can see how it can often make the viewer frustrated at times. That’s just the price we pay for living in a nice (usually quiet) small town. More professionalism comes with larger towns and bigger markets. When I first came to Idaho Falls, I was taken aback by the “laid back” atmosphere, but soon learned to enjoy it and the friendly people that came along with this type of atmosphere. I think CR can attest to that also as he came from a big city and interviewed with me in a suit and tie. Something most folks just don’t do around here.
So while our news stations may not seem as professional as other larger markets, I kind of enjoy the “hometown feel” they give off. And mistakes that come across just show that their only human. I think overall they do just fine.
I caught most of the entire incident on channel 8 and my scanner. I thought channel 8 did a good job considering how fast the situation developed. They can’t be expected to get all the facts correct immediately since the police have more important things to do than keep the media informed every second. The one major error they made was that they should have verified the situation was over before announcing the “all clear” when it obviously was not. You would think they would at least have a scanner in the news room.
Channel 8 does have a scanner in its newsroom, and in the live truck. I didn’t see the coverage so I have no idea why the ‘all clear’ was given prior to the situation really being over.
Reference, as an extreme contrast, 9-11-01. All broadcast network news channels were on live, all were striving for breaking news information, and all were spreading some inaccuracies in their efforts to get exclusive information (or any information) out to the world.
So when we have our own little drama right here in River City, it certainly can and will happen that some info goes out before it’s actually a certainty, although I’m sure they all tried to minimize the errors (so as not to be called on it the next day).
Interesting that the main action happened right in front of an old DJ’s house, and the best footage came from his video camera. Interesting, too, that after getting a reverse 911 call, the parents tell their (adult or close to adult) daughter to peek out the window to see what’s going on (her words). I’d be telling my kids to go into a deep windowless part of the house, and to stay away from the windows in case of gunfire…
I haven’t seen that footage, which network carried it?
I can’t remember right off the bat where I saw it. I saw some coverage on 6 at 6 and some on 8 at 10, sorry. But it was clearly home video, went right through the guy’s window (could see the windowsill, etc).
Interesting differences between the three local networks on the Wal-Mart parking lot suicide story.
Local News 8 had a very short blurb, with hardly any information, KIDK has no story right now, and KPVI has the most information posted with the location, backstory, and witness account.
I asked someone about KIFI’s lack of story. He said that they have a suicide policy, always have, that prevents them from giving much publicity to a suicide situation.
Apparently it’s in hopes that by not giving publicity, naming names, etc, that others don’t feel they have a shot at a posthumous 15 minutes of fame by taking their own life.
I guess after wishing there was less publicity over the mass shootings, we wouldn’t complain that someone actually does that, locally.
Good point, I can appreciate that. I hope we can learn more about news policies and trends from this ongoing discussion, I am certainly learning.
That is a good point about the suicide policy. Now, perhaps if they had such a policy about the high speed chase situation many news outlets wouldn’t have glamorized the speeders life after he was shot and killed…..or at least probed why he did it….namely, because of his meth addiction and criminality.
I think it’s really hard to voluntarily limit your coverage of news on any subject because the public wants blood, they want to know all the sordid details about the person and their situation.
National Enquirer is still going strong after all these years. Supermarket tabloids and gossip mags and the show “Cops” and our obsession with this type of news is such that what profit-seeking news outlet will voluntarily not cover things such as the high-speed chase, and not do the backstory, too?
Because if you watch it, you give the stations ratings points (in a roundabout way). Ratings points translate into commercial sales, which pays their bills.
How many times on these posts have we commented that we checked out all the different channels, looking for the best coverage of an ‘exciting’ local happening?
We the people are the beast who won’t be satisfied with minimal coverage. We need dirty laundry.
Personally, I rarely watch the news anymore BECAUSE of that so-called “dirty laundry”. When I do turn it on, more often than not it’s just to watch the weather. It’s always the same ole recycled garbage, doom and gloom, death and destruction and 99% of it has no impact on my life one way or the other. So why do we do it? It’s like when theres somebody pulled over on the side of the road. It could be a simple flat tire, but everybody slows down to a crawl just so they can get a glimpse of whats going on. That example isn’t so bad up here, but when you live in a big city, the traffic will back up for miles and miles and its ridiculous. Why are people so interested in death and destruction….good people gone bad…etc, etc. In some small way I believe we like to think that our lives are just a little bit better than our neighbors. Most of us don’t have all that drama in our lives, so we feed off of others misery & heartache in order to feel better about our own lives.
Remember that Monte was excited about the term Schadenfreude. It means to take pleasure in the misery of others, basically.
There was a letter to the editor in an April men’s mag that mentioned a great old proverb…”some people make themselves taller by cutting others’ heads off”
Well, our lives seem better if they’re not as bad as others’ are. And we have such a class conscious society, with the haves and the havenots so far apart, that the havenots are tremendously entertained by the misfortunes and bad behavior of the haves.
It’s just a natural human thing, unfortunately. And those of us who try not to give in to that baser instinct are few and far between, these days.
Yep, the old adage….if it bleeds it leads rings pretty true. You really have to force yourself not to get sucked into the quagmire. Even when in line at the supermarket, the Enquirer stares you in the face….and I for one can’t help but stare back at it….even if I don’t buy it, the content (albeit ridiculous) is infectious.