[TV orNotTV] Official Death of TV News As A Useful Source of Information
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PGage
Aug 24, 2014, 7:08:54 AM8/24/14
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We had a pretty serious earthquake here in the Bay Area early this morning (a little after 3:00 am, PT). It is now 4:03 am, and we have not seen a single actual report on any of this on television (a couple of local stations had a crawl with basic information).
It was centered near American Canyon, which is near Vallejo, and very close to the San Francisco Bay. It was felt from at least Palo Alto in the south to up where I am in northern Napa Valley (easily the strongest shaker I have felt in 26 years of living here). There are reports on Twitter of several communities near the epicenter having lost power and of household items shaken out of all cabinets. So far no reports of any serious damage to infrastructure or loss of life.
It was centered near American Canyon, which is near Vallejo, and very close to the San Francisco Bay. It was felt from at least Palo Alto in the south to up where I am in northern Napa Valley (easily the strongest shaker I have felt in 26 years of living here). There are reports on Twitter of several communities near the epicenter having lost power and of household items shaken out of all cabinets. So far no reports of any serious damage to infrastructure or loss of life.
It is the kind of event TV news used to be ideal for - getting reliable and succinct information out to a large percentage of the population quickly. I was on Facebook and Twitter and the USGS within minutes and that is where I got all of my information (though a good chunk of it through the former sources was incorrect). As I say, an hour later, nothing on TV.
Kevin M.
Aug 24, 2014, 11:45:13 AM8/24/14
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Earthquake coverage was the one thing aside from car chases that SoCal news outlets did well. I can still picture Paul Moyers at the newsdesk with his sleeves rolled up and tie loosened, throwing it to whatever cub reporter drew the short straw and had to go to Cal Tech to await the official proclamation of the size of the quake. Then there were the other reporters who had to drive around LA looking for signs of damage, interviewing drunk, stoned, and senile men on the street. Footage of a ruptured fire hydrant or a sink hole were TV gold. The coverage usually ended once the county officials had released the apx. cost of the damage.
None of it was actual news (just like a car chase), as all the events being discussed had already happened and there was nothing new to report, but darned if it wasn't thrilling to watch.
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Kevin M. (RPCV)
PGage
Aug 24, 2014, 12:45:40 PM8/24/14
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On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 8:45 AM, Kevin M. <drunkba...@gmail.com> wrote:
Earthquake coverage was the one thing aside from car chases that SoCal news outlets did well. I can still picture Paul Moyers at the newsdesk with his sleeves rolled up and tie loosened, throwing it to whatever cub reporter drew the short straw and had to go to Cal Tech to await the official proclamation of the size of the quake. Then there were the other reporters who had to drive around LA looking for signs of damage, interviewing drunk, stoned, and senile men on the street. Footage of a ruptured fire hydrant or a sink hole were TV gold. The coverage usually ended once the county officials had released the apx. cost of the damage.None of it was actual news (just like a car chase), as all the events being discussed had already happened and there was nothing new to report, but darned if it wasn't thrilling to watch.
Except, I would say a lot of it is real news. I lived through several significant quakes when I grew up in LA, and several up here in NOCAL; in the immediate aftermath, it is important to know some basic information: are their buildings on fire? Are the bridges and overpasses safe? Which hospitals have been effected? I remember back in 1971 (Sylmar earthquake - I lived about 3 miles from the epicenter) we had significant worries about local damns that were in danger of failing, and a nearby hospital collapsed (several friends of my family were eventually found to have been killed there). If everything is okay, people who are anxious and uncertain want to hear that there are no real problems; if you can't find friends and relatives, you want some idea of what kinds of threats might be facing them.
Of course these days we had instant access to lots of information online - I knew within 10 minutes where the epicenter was and about how large it was, and was able to check in with family and friends on FB and Twitter to make sure everyone was okay, and that even closer to the epicenter (we are actually about 40 miles from that) property and human damage was not extensive.
But the lack of any television coverage for about an hour (for the record, ABC 7 was the first local to go on the air with coverage at a little after 4:00 am, followed by CBS 5 and NBC 3 about 15 minutes later) meant that we really did not know the extent of the damage and threats faced by our friends and neighbors. Once the newscasts did come on we realized that there were several fires (it looks like 4 mobile homes were destroyed), there was a lot of loss of power, and lots of broken gas and water mains, all in the City of Napa. A lot of older and historic buildings down in Napa city are also damaged and threatened. Most of this is not of much interest nationally or even across the state, but locally, it is the kind of information that you either need, or want, to have as soon as possible.
But the lack of any television coverage for about an hour (for the record, ABC 7 was the first local to go on the air with coverage at a little after 4:00 am, followed by CBS 5 and NBC 3 about 15 minutes later) meant that we really did not know the extent of the damage and threats faced by our friends and neighbors. Once the newscasts did come on we realized that there were several fires (it looks like 4 mobile homes were destroyed), there was a lot of loss of power, and lots of broken gas and water mains, all in the City of Napa. A lot of older and historic buildings down in Napa city are also damaged and threatened. Most of this is not of much interest nationally or even across the state, but locally, it is the kind of information that you either need, or want, to have as soon as possible.
Kevin M.
Aug 24, 2014, 2:12:07 PM8/24/14
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But they treat the non-newsworthy elements of such events (like MOS interviews and pointless press conferences) as if they are the same degree of newsworthiness as downed power lines or unsafe bridges, thus making the coverage as useless as anything else local news does. I'm sure it wasn't, but I wish the reason the SF news outlets waited as long as they did to go live was so they could gather information, instead of the more likely reason that nobody was manning the newsdesk at 3am on a Sunday... at least nobody who could go on the air. I watched about an hour of the live ABC7 feed this morning, and less than four hours after the quake, they were already resorting to hovering a helicopter over a damaged but still open highway (I've seen bigger asphalt cracks driving down Sunset Blvd in Hollywood), and an older building whose "towers" had crumbled. These were interesting videos, but didn't provide the sort of need-to-know information you recall from Sylmar or other quakes.
As you said, times have changed and the internet is now the fastest means of delivering information, which means local news should accept that and really take the time to package together information that matters, but they don't because it is easier to hover a helicopter hover over cracked asphalt while a news anchor says, "wow... look at that."
I know I mentioned it at the time, but I still maintain that when Hawaii was braced for a possible tsunami a few years back, their local news coverage was outstanding. They cut through the BS, said what needed saying, didn't endanger their people by placing them on the ground, and didn't bother speaking to ordinary citizens with nothing of substance to contribute. It was refreshing. I don't even think Honolulu is in the top 50 TV markets, but I'd choose their news team against LA's in terms of disaster coverage any day of the week.
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Kevin M. (RPCV)
PGage
Aug 24, 2014, 2:33:13 PM8/24/14
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Clearly there is a lot of crap on local news coverage of events like this, and they are so addicted to interesting images that they distort what is going on. There have been scattered, small fires in Napa, but from the news you might think the city was burning.
But in a small town like this, information which might seem trivial in Los Angeles is actually pretty important. Those images of 10" buckling in the road on the main highways was important for people to know, and see, as they planned what to do this morning. The problem in the immediate aftermath that I was responding to was that none of the local news stations seemed to have *any* live personnel in their studios for about an hour after this major event. Twitter provides information, but not news. When the first newscasts did come on, pretty much all they did was read Twitter reports - this during a time when there were elderly people dealing with their mobile homes burning up, and multiple ruptures of gas and water lines. The local hospital, fire departments and police departments were inundated with calls during those first 90 minutes, and we did not know anything about it (those old folks at the mobile home park seem not to have thought to get on their twitter accounts).
To their credit, once they got up and running (I would say around 6:00 am) they local stations have done a pretty good job. They got reporters out on the scene, checked on and either confirmed or disconfirmed various Twitter reports, got responsible public officials and asked them relevant questions and got important information out. One problem was that the main hospital in Napa was itself damaged, and some locals were not sure if it was safe to go there for help (turns out it is safe); the main public safety operation in Napa works out of the Napa Courthouse, which suffered major damage and they operations had to be relocated. The First Methodist Church downtown is in a historic building, and the facade with stain glass window has come lose, and probably will be coming down. Much of this is information that could have been shared earlier than it was, and was valuable once it was shared. No real harm was done in the actual event, but many would have liked to know.
But in a small town like this, information which might seem trivial in Los Angeles is actually pretty important. Those images of 10" buckling in the road on the main highways was important for people to know, and see, as they planned what to do this morning. The problem in the immediate aftermath that I was responding to was that none of the local news stations seemed to have *any* live personnel in their studios for about an hour after this major event. Twitter provides information, but not news. When the first newscasts did come on, pretty much all they did was read Twitter reports - this during a time when there were elderly people dealing with their mobile homes burning up, and multiple ruptures of gas and water lines. The local hospital, fire departments and police departments were inundated with calls during those first 90 minutes, and we did not know anything about it (those old folks at the mobile home park seem not to have thought to get on their twitter accounts).
To their credit, once they got up and running (I would say around 6:00 am) they local stations have done a pretty good job. They got reporters out on the scene, checked on and either confirmed or disconfirmed various Twitter reports, got responsible public officials and asked them relevant questions and got important information out. One problem was that the main hospital in Napa was itself damaged, and some locals were not sure if it was safe to go there for help (turns out it is safe); the main public safety operation in Napa works out of the Napa Courthouse, which suffered major damage and they operations had to be relocated. The First Methodist Church downtown is in a historic building, and the facade with stain glass window has come lose, and probably will be coming down. Much of this is information that could have been shared earlier than it was, and was valuable once it was shared. No real harm was done in the actual event, but many would have liked to know.
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