Fifteen to twenty people are abducted, tied up, robbed and abandoned in a vacant house. The robbers gain control of the victims by claiming to be federal agents. Sounds like news, no? If the victims are Hispanic, the answer is “yes, but….” No denying that it’s news. The question is whether it’ll get on TV [...]
Archive for June, 2008
16 Jun
RIP
When WSB produced a report Friday about the sudden death of Tim Russert, the station unwittingly exposed a regrettable trend in local media. In WSB’s report, Lori Geary interviewed Bill Nigut about Russert. When Nigut was WSB’s political reporter from 1983-2003, he covered the legislature and local politics with good-natured bombast. And he frequently hit [...]
15 Jun
Winne Watch 6.13.08
“Be alert for power tool noises in the night.” -Mark Winne on WSB Friday at 6pm. Following that line, Winne helpfully pulled the trigger on a two-foot electric saw, punctuating Winne’s live shot with a menacing buzz. Winne’s report was about thieves in Clayton County stealing catalytic converters from vehicles. Drama points: √√√ (out of [...]
13 Jun
The glamor of TV, part 67
We swiped this from Mostly Media. It appears the reporter swallowed a bug. Notice how the pitch of his voice changes when he goes from “on” to “off.” If the f-word offends you, don’t watch:
12 Jun
Blinded
If WSB starts a story by telling viewers they’re about to expose wasted tax money– your money!— chances are, they’re going to spend the next couple of minutes bashing science. So it was in a piece this week. Tom Regan found that Georgia Tech had gotten a federal grant to develop a robotic drum machine. [...]
11 Jun
Weathergirl
“Desperate” is not too strong a word to use to describe WGCL’s quest to find an audience. “Shameless” may or may not be too strong. Shame is for people with pride. As the fictional Marcellus Wallace said, pride only hurts and never helps. Loosened from those bounds, WGCL has long favored promos like the one [...]
10 Jun
Winne Watch 6.10.08
“Mr. Bone! Did you rob a bank? What’s your side of the story?” -Mark Winne, on WSB’s 6pm news Monday. The alleged bank robber, Levell Bone, ignored Winne’s shouts from across a parking lot. Winne identified Bone as “the Bicycle Bandit”…. caught on our camera… and caught on a SunTrust surveillance camera.” Winne gains points [...]
10 Jun
Good, bad, ugly
The Good: Jon Shirek’s 6pm piece on WXIA on gas-crunch changes in auto sales. Shirek spoke with a dealer who no longer takes SUVs on trade-ins. He also revealed that hybrids may be less cost-effective than an old fashioned four-cyclinder buggy. As always, Shirek’s piece was thoughtful and well-written. The Bad: WXIA’s new and unclever [...]
9 Jun
Dumpster Diving
John Bachman couldn’t have been happy about his assignment Thursday. Seems WSB’s news desk got a phone call from a construction worker at the West Paces Shopping Center in NW Atlanta. The construction worker told the desk about a dumpster on the property. Inside the dumpster were boxes of paper. The paper appeared to have [...]
6 Jun
Execution
It’s rare for two Atlanta reporters to witness an execution. It apparently happened Wednesday, when the state executed Curtis Osborne for a 1990 double murder in Spalding County. Sarah Parker of WGCL phoned in a brief and rather bland account of the execution for the station’s 11pm news Wednesday. But Rhonda Cook of the AJC [...]
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