Sunday, March 19, 2006

KSN adds the crawl

KSN has followed KODE's lead and has now added a crawl at the bottom of the screen, providing a distracting presence to its newscasts.
I don't know when the crawl was added, but I first noted it Friday night. Some readers had warned this was coming since Nexstar Broadcasting runs the operations for both stations, but I was hoping KSN would take the high road and keep the nonsense from the bottom of the screen.
Most viewers of local news have been accustomed to crawls telling us when there are severe weather problems or giving information about a legitimate breaking news story. Now, this will get many out of the habit of checking the bottom of the screen for that type of information. Of course, that will mean our local stations will have to find a different way to grab our attention, some loud noise or bright, blinking light or something.
On the other hand, a crawl could provide a welcome distraction during KSN's 5 p.m. newscast, "Live with Gary and Tiffany," when the hosts begin one of their conversations on items that have nothing to do with the news.
Hopefully, KOAM will continue to run its newscasts without these distractions.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

So have you totally stopped watching KSN? The crawl has been up for two weeks now.

Randy said...

No, I haven't had much of an opportunity to watch the local news for the past couple of weeks and when I have had it on, I have been reading, grading papers, or working on other things at the same time. I hadn't noticed or I guarantee you, I would have already written about it.

Anonymous said...

Yeah I suspected your viewing habits may have changed. KSN has been scooping KOAM on several different stories over the last few weeks. From continuing storm coverage, to beating them with the first to report on homicides.

Anonymous said...

I sort of see the reasoning for adding the crawl, especially when it comes to sports. I remember once e-mailing KODE sports (VonderHaar) and KSN some time ago and asking them why they only showed Cardinal and Royals scores and not other MLB scores. The main response I got was that they didn't have the time. So I made a suggestion that during sports they should run the other MLB scores across the bottom of the screen.

Anonymous said...

What I do not understand is if the station adds the crawl why do they air stories that have the persons name at the bottom BEHIND the crawl? Can they not move it up or something, it is very disturbing to the viewer who would like to see the name of the person talking.

Anonymous said...

What is even more disturbing than not seeing the person's name is when the crawl repeats the same three headlines during the entire newscast, as was the case last week on KSN. Also disturbing were KSN's incomplete headline crawls. KOAM and FOX are looking better all the time. Hopefully, they don't start this annoying crawl business too.

Anonymous said...

Don't get your hopes up...its only a short matter of time before the KOAM crawl begins.

Anonymous said...

Turner: Where were you with KOAM not covering the suspicious death today? Again, they missed a top story.

Randy said...

Sorry, I was out of town most of the day today. Thanks for keeping us informed.

Anonymous said...

I am seriouly going to stop watching any local news because of the crawls. It is not so much the crawl but the limited crap in them. Either give the story or not and move the names of interviewed people up some so you can read it. It looks shabby and tacky and my first grader could put on a better news cast, she would not talk about herslef so much. It seems awful for this area to not be able to put on a professional news filled news cast, they are spending the money on something, just not on air presence.

Anonymous said...

Turner: Did you see the noon news on Tuesday. KOAM again missed two big stories. They missed the dead body in Joplin and Levi King in court. What is up with the so called "news leader?"

Anonymous said...

The "News-Leader"? Isn't that the paper in Springfield?

Anonymous said...

REGARDING THESE POSTED COMMENTS -
"Yeah I suspected your viewing habits may have changed. KSN has been scooping KOAM on several different stories over the last few weeks. From continuing storm coverage, to beating them with the first to report on homicides."
"Turner: Did you see the noon news on Tuesday. KOAM again missed two big stories. They missed the dead body in Joplin and Levi King in court. What is up with the so called "news leader?""

FIRST OF ALL, YOU ARE ASSUMING THAT THOSE DEATHS REPORTED ON AS SUSPICIOUS WERE, IN FACT, "HOMICIDES." POLICE TREAT NEARLY EVERY UNATTENDED DEATH AS SUSPICIOUS. SECOND, BOTH "HOMICIDES" AS YOU ARE CALLING THEM, TURNED OUT TO BE ACCIDENTAL. WHAT HAPPENS WITH KSN AND KODE IS THEY REPORT INFORMATION AND ADD A LITTLE SPICE TO MAKE IT SOUND LIKE A STORY. THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH TABLOID TELEVISION UNLESS IT'S LABELED AS A NEWS PRODUCT. IT SEEMS SORT OF SIMILAR TO THEM AIRING COMMERCIALS LABELED AS NEWS.

HOW ABOUT THE FOUR STATES NEWS LEADER INVESTIGATING AND BREAKING THE STORY ABOUT THE NEVADA POLICE CHIEF, ON TAPE, WILLING TO LET A CITIZEN GET KILLED BEFORE SHE CORRECTED A PROBLEM. HOW'S THAT FOR BREAKING STORIES? KOAM CONTINUES TO PUT OUT A REAL NEWS PRODUCT THAT IS NOT A THINLY DISGUISED COMMERCIAL OR TABLOID TELEVISION. KSN ONLY GETS REAL NEWS BECAUSE KODE GIVES IT TO THEM. KSN SHOULD JUST KEEP UP
THEIR EFFORTS TO RUN THE NAME OF LOCAL NEWS RIGHT INTO THE GROUND.