Like it or not, marketing is part of the news business. So it’s to be expected that local TV stations and The Eagle will trumpet when they have a big news “exclusive.” But these promotions are easily overdone — especially when they are for news that isn’t that significant, or when the drive to be first causes media to shortchange their reporting.
Todd Spessard, news director of KSNW, Channel 3, compared such excessive marketing with football players doing a touchdown dance. “I look at that dance and think, ‘Act like you’ve been there before,’” he told The Eagle in an “exclusive” report.
And speaking of excessive marketing, how about the Super Digital Doppler High Definition Viper 3D weather alerts?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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25 Comments
I thought it was “SuperDuper Digital Dopplar Hi Definition Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious Viper 3D radar.yeah – exclusively only on (insert station here)
Say that 10 times quickly, and you’re hired!!
Yes, Channel 3 does have “super duper digital doppler hi-definition supercalifragelistic expealodocious viper 3-D radar,” at their batcave hidden inside the walls of Exploration Place along side the Arkansas River. But have you ever noticed that when storms approach downtown Wichita, Dave Freeman and the other channel 3 meteorologists seem to defer to sounds they hear from around and on the roof of Exploration Place?
A couple weeks ago, a storm with wind, hail and lots of rain was approaching Wichita from Goddard and Andale, west side of Wichita. As I drove past Exploration Place hoping to seek cover under an overpass as the lightening and thunder approached the city, I decided to test my theory.
So, while listening to channel 3’s excited weather reporting on their cooperating radio station, KSNN, I drove up to the outside west wall of Exploration Place. Not too distant from the inside of that wall lies Channel 3’s vaunted weather laboratory.
I backed my car up to that wall and gunned my engine ever louder. Sure enough, Dave Freeman said, “Folks our futuristic electronic weather reporting equipment shows the wind is now increasing indicating the rapid approach of the dangerous front we have been warning you about.”
I thought, wow, this is better than I expected. So, I got out of my car, and found a handful of pebbles and threw them up on the roof in an ever increasing tempo. Sure enough, Dave Freeman said, “Folks, we are now receiving marble size hail here at Exploration Place.” With that, I picked up some small rocks and pitched them up on the metal roof of Exploration Place. By now, Dave Freeman was yelling, “We are now receiving hail as large as baseballs and its getting bigger!”
At that point, I noticed a water hose attached to a spigot nearby. My first inclination was to let well enough alone. But, I thought the opportunity might not come along again. So I turned the hose on full blast on the west side of the building and the nearby glass windows. At that point, Freeman shreiked, “We are having an enormous cloudburst with hail and tornadic winds. Viewers take cover. Everybody here abandon this building!”
As I drove off, I noticed in my rear view mirror five Channel 3 weathermen carrying innertubes jumping off the outdoor platform of Exploration Place into the dark and turbid waters of the Arkansas River, on that dark night accentuated with flashing lightening and ominous thunder of the approaching thunderstorm.
Thanks JWink, for the BEST post I have seen here in a long time!!!
When storms approach, I prefer listening to the guys out driving in them. One happens to be from my home town, and another on a different radio station lived just a few miles north of where I lived in the boondocks.
As for all the local TV radars, I’ll choose this one:
http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=ict&product=N0R&overlay=11101111&loop=yes
Of course these “news stations” are the same ones who give politicians political ads, “Truth tests” and whack them for being “misleading.” That story, right after our commercial showing how our radar can beat up the other station’s radar.Whatta joke.
JWINK – Beautiful!
I fail to see the beauty in it.
I like that KSN has its facility at Exploration Place. The meteorologist have always patiently answered any questions I asked when visiting.
One can only imagine how patient they must be with you JR…
Bush you blow me Joe.
KSN is much better than Kake.
Although all news stations give out umbrellas or rain gauges as prizes everyday. Which I think is strange.
Exclusives, radar, first, readers and listeners don’t care about that.
If every story came from another source we wouldn’t care.
Accuracy, truthful, unbiased, now your talking.
If you want to know about the weather, then go ask the farmer on his tractor.
If you want to know about a government welfare program, then go ask the farmer on his tractor.
Joe, What do you mean?
Joe, If you’re talking about farm subsides, then I agree.
Joe..It would improve things alot if they would disallow any payments to those who file Form F and their only income is on line 40a. Agricultural Program Payments.This would force big oil to stop collecting farm subsidies on land that they purchase to suck oil out of, which they never intended for farm use!
Here is a news “exclusive” that all media seems to be focusing on.
The death of a bicyclist this week is a tragic accident. The paper and the television stations are devoting a huge amount of time to this story: interviewing friends, repeating the events, showing pictures over and over and over, commenting on how the accident was not their fault.
March 16th, a friend of mine, Kevin McVeigh, was run down by an SUV that turned left, violating Kevin’s right of way. Kevin was killed thru absolutely no fault of his own. Yet, there was not one story interviewing his friends. Not one commentary about his innocence.
Could it be that it is more tragic if a ‘good Christian’ is killed than someone who isn’t a regular church goer? Is it because he was riding a motorcycle, and therefore more deserving of being killed?
Why the huge discrepancy in coverage? Why the tremendous outpouring of love and compassion for one death–and almost complete silence on another?
Raptor,
My sympathies the loss of your friend.
I go along with what you are saying there. Sometimes I think there is some sort of formula to what is newsworthy and what is not.
My favorite examle is the Elizabeth Smart story.
At right around the same time this white, wealthy girl disappeared in Utah, a young not so wealthy black girl disappered in Wichita. The Smart case got national media play. The Wichita case (see I can’t even remember her name) got almost no coverage at all.
I like Ellen De Generes’s take on the media sensationalism.
(Affecting news anchor voice and manner)
“It could be the most dangerous thing on the planet and you may be eating it right now! We’ll have the story, at 11″
(Ellen looking up from eating) “Is it peas?”
Oh, for crying out loud. They own a popular clothing store so more people know them. No more. No less. Get a LIFE!
Excuse the hell out of me for asking. I guess I am not among the ‘movers and shakers’ in Wichita to know the ‘who’s who’ of this thriving metropolis.
A thousand pardons, oh wise one
I don’t watch the local news. If I want to know what’s happening locally, I come here. (big grin)
Raptor, I am very sorry for your loss. There is no telling why this latest story got so much coverage than his story. Your friend’s death is, for sure, a tragedy.If I were to venture a guess, I might have to say that there are more people out this time of the year, and the media coverage is meant to make more people aware of the dangers. Maybe I am naive to the local “politics” of a story and to the prominence of one family over another, but I really do feel that with more children biking during the summer months, the media decided to jump all over this one.
Raptor,I also knew Kevin. He was quite a character.I think the reason that the media focused on the death of the bicyclist and not a motorcyclist was the fact that bicylce paths are a big news item right now. Kevin was using a motorcycle (just like he did most of the time). Doesn’t make his death any better but Kevin knew the risks of riding – he knew motorists don’t respect the right of motorcyclists like they should – he took that risk and paid the ultimate price.
I also knew Kevin, but I knew the woman and her 3 young children driving the other vehicle in the accident as well. They have all went through, and are still going through a lot of greif. They have had to go through physical therapy for their injuries, along with counceling to try to deal with this horrible Accident!Before we talk about one side of the story, we need to know both sides. Did you know that Kevin did not have a legal driver’s liscense or any kind of insurance?