Saturday August 10, 2013 update:
Officials in the town of Deer Trail were split in a 3-3 vote Tuesday on a law that would allow drone hunting within its borders. The matter will now go to a public vote, according to this
Amanda Kost, ABC7 News update.
And:
Original blog post July 20:
There were two things in TV news this week that coursed through the Internets’s series of tubes and caught my attention: one was the removal of the heart of a story about government spying, the other was a brainless (and racist) error. Both stories involved careless reporting.
Officials in the town of Deer Trail were split in a 3-3 vote Tuesday on a law that would allow drone hunting within its borders. The matter will now go to a public vote, according to this
Amanda Kost, ABC7 News update.
And:
On July 25, Sara Morrison of The Wrap reported that three producers at KTVU in Oakland were fired over a racist error announced live during a newscast about the Asiana crash landing that left three dead.
"Reached by TheWrap via email, investigative projects producer Roland De Wolk wrote : "My hard-earned reputation is intack (sic). There are lawyers, so eager as I am to anser (sic) all questions, I must refrain."
TheWrap presumes the spelling errors were unintentional."
I think that The Wrap is being far too kind to Mr. DeWolk.
The other producers named in Morrison's article are Brad Belstock and Cristina Gastelu. Although, as of this writing, Gastelu still lists KTVU as her employer.
You can read Morrison's article here:
_ _ _
Original blog post July 20:
There were two things in TV news this week that coursed through the Internets’s series of tubes and caught my attention: one was the removal of the heart of a story about government spying, the other was a brainless (and racist) error. Both stories involved careless reporting.
That’s what I want to talk about today.
Heartless spin
The mayor of the town of Deer Trail, Colo., is trying to send an important
message about government surveillance of Americans by drafting a measure to
allow bounty hunting of unmanned drones in the town's airspace. With recent
revelations provided by whistle-blower Ed Snowden about the National Security
Agency and its questionable tactics collecting information and spying on Americans, this is
an important conversation the country needs to remain engaged in until we have
come to a constitutional resolution.
Or not.
In the online version of her story, in an interview with the town’s mayor, ABC7NEWS Reporter
Amanda Kost said she asked the town official if he had ever seen a
drone flying over.
"No," Mayor Phillip Steel responded. "This is a very symbolic ordinance. Basically, I do
not believe in the idea of a surveillance society, and I believe we are heading
that way."
Unfortunately, that quote never made the on-air news
cast.
Instead, the story became a silly fluff piece focused on the kind of
money that could be made during a “drone days” festival, the sale of licenses and the fact that you can’t
actually shoot down a drone with a shotgun.
If I were Steel I would have felt like my heart was
ripped out.
It’s no wonder people are afraid to talk with reporters
about anything important and that they take delight in the errors that supposedly
trained journalists make - sometimes even provoking them.
Holy Fook
When an airplane crashes and people are killed, maimed and
injured it is hard news and newsrooms across the country and around the world are
rightfully compelled to report such occurrences. The ‘media’ has the
responsibility of being the source of public record.
While each story is different and there is no protocol for
covering tragic breaking news, from this former daily newspaper reporter’s
perspective, covering developing news was the same each time: get to the scene;
collect personal observations; talk to eyewitnesses and experts; source and
fact check everything; then inform the public.
Asiana Flight 214, where three teen-aged girls lost their
lives and dozens of people were injured, was that kind of tragic breaking news.
But days after the deadly crash, in a frenzy of trying to continue to be
first on air with more ‘breaking news’ (despite that it was several days after)
San Francisco television station KTVU ‘presenter’ Tori Campbell read the names
of four people the news station claimed to be pilots of the plane. Because the preliminary
cause of the crash pointed to pilot error (although I do not know the origin of
this information), it was certainly relevant to the story.
After Campbell read the names aloud, “Captain Sum Ting Wong,
Wi To Lo, Ho Lee (Fook) and Bang Ding Ow,” she added, “We are working to see what
role each of them played.”
{Here Reb gently rests
face in palm.}
Really? Maybe that would have been a good thing to do before
taking this on air.
The news station offered an immediate, tepid and
unapologetic apology and then later a formal written one that blamed an unnamed
National Transportation Safety Board summer intern as the source who confirmed the bad information.
So it’s OK that no one on the staff seemed to notice what
the copy actually SAID regardless of the source? OK to just blame the source and
not acknowledge the producer’s and anchor’s actions are unacceptable? Were they all unpaid summer interns?
Couldn't she hear herself speaking?
Was the crew even listening?
Despite being a tactless, racist prank, many people found it
to be hilariously funny. (OK, if you are now lost, I urge you to go back and
re-read the pilots names in order, a little faster, or watch the video if it’s
still available …)
The television agency has not yet explained publicly who was responsible. It is my belief that the news station’s errors compel disclosure as a matter of
public record.
Maybe we can get KTVU’s Tori Campbell to host the ABC7News
coverage of Drone Days.
Or maybe it’s time to raise the bar folks.
We’re too low.
Bang, ding, ow.
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