Thursday, June 02, 2005

Difference in handling breaking news

The robbery of Community Bank and Trust at 7th and Rangeline this afternoon afforded viewers an opportunity to see how our local television stations handle breaking news.
KSNF had the information about the robbery and it was presented professionally with an on-air reading by veteran anchor Jim Jackson.
From that, all we knew was that a robbery had occurred and that there would be more information later.
As Jackson was relating that story, KOAM's Dowe Quick was able to get a live update from reporter Anne Bassett at the scene. It appears there was much more to this situation than just a bank robbery. I didn't catch the entire report since I am about out the door for a Natural Disaster practice in Newtonia, but it does appear that someone was shot and that police snipers were at work.
I briefly flipped on KODE, but no information about the robbery was being given at the top of the news, so I turned it off. While this type of news is going on, KSN has now shifted to a live remote from Galena for the team of Gary Bandy and Tiffany Alaniz interviewing a young beauty queen at the 125th birthday of Galena. Actually, they didn't interview her, she just stood there in her crown.
What happened to the excellent idea that KSN had a while back of returning Miss Alaniz to her reporting roots. She did a number of live reports on breaking news and did a fine job on them. Now KSN seems to be casting Miss Alaniz and Bandy as the Regis and Kelly of their news team.
The robbery apparently happened shortly after 5 p.m. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if that news was broken during the 5 p.m. news hour. If KSN had all of the information, we probably would have seen the spectacle of Miss Alaniz in casual clothing, sitting outdoors, the wind blowing through her hair, as she relayed a story on a bank robbery and a death. Unfortunately, that was exactly what was seen and heard when she reported the story of the child in Alba who was accidentally shot to death earlier today.
Toni Valliere provided an excellent report, but the tragedy seemed lessened by the less than professional atmosphere of the 5 p.m. news. After all, it isn't Action News, or Eyewitness News, or KSN Reports, it's Live with Gary and Tiffany. KSN is even listing the weatherman/entertainer first.
If this is what Nexstar CEO Perry Sook has meant when he has talked at the investor conferences recently about Nexstar's dedication to improving its local newscasts, then I fear what the future may hold for KSNF viewers.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So I wonder when KSNF will lose the title of "News Station?"

Anonymous said...

Where did you here someone was shot?

Randy said...

Apparently, I misheard, at least from the information I received later from someone at the scene.