|
Psycho
|
A little Perspective from someone in the business in Phoenix, taken from an e-mail I received:
Quote:
When “News” is not “News”
I work in the Phoenix DMA, at a local station here. Sadly, I was at work when 2 of our competing stations suffered a mid-air collision as a result of “covering” a slow-speed car-chase involving a water truck that resulted in the collision of Channel 3 (KTVK) and Channel 15 (KNXV).
I feel for the families and co-workers of the unfortunate victims of this tragedy and being an employee for a local station, it goes without saying that it affects us all as media people, whether TV, Radio or Print form, all share a brotherhood much like the police and military. It touches all of us in so many ways when one of our own is hurt or killed.
Having said that, Phoenix PD is looking into the possibility of charging the suspect, Christopher Jones with his involvement in the deaths of our 4 colleagues. My problem with charging Jones for the deaths of the 4 newsmen, is that it wasn't necessary for the local media to dispatch their choppers to cover a “non-story”. Over the years I have worked in TV, so often News Directors & Producers will dispatch their helicopters & live units simply in response because “station X is doing it, so we have to do it too” in order to “appear” to be the “first with the news.” In my opinion, the local stations were doing nothing more than "making a story out of a non-story". I have worked in this TV market for over 15 years as well as in other large markets, and it doesn't matter where you go, stations are so busy thinking they are “covering news” when in reality they are busy “making news&rd! quo; by covering something that is insignificant to most people in the community. I am forever regaled with comments from viewers that wonder why TV stations go overboard covering weather and other such stories and people snicker at the self-grandiosity of the news organization that think they are covering “breaking news”, when in fact, they are thinking only of their appearance as a so-called credible news organization with no thought of how it really best serves the public interest. I have often told colleagues that I wondered how long it would be until something like this happened and now sadly, it has.
I think if anything, the News Directors and Executive Producers of TV stations need to re-think the criteria as to why they would dispatch their helicopters to cover stories. Christopher Jones had not shot a police officer, he had not shot or injured innocent pedestrians, he had not robbed or committed a crime serious enough for 5 valley choppers to cover and to pre-empt their regular programming. In my career, I have been on “live locations” on the ground covering a story that had long ceased to be “breaking news” and looked up to see the choppers above me on site also covering the same scene, something that wasn't in my opinion, worth their presence. Had I been a news director, I would have not let a chopper cover this particular chase simply because it was frivolous and not beneficial to the public as a whole. Only when the situation warrants, should something as sophisticated and dangerous as a helicopter, be used. The local stations! (and other large markets) tend to use them again and again, frivolously, more than not, without any thought to consequences and instead have the tendency to “make news” when it's not really “news”, but rather their desire to be “live, local and late-breaking”. Many times, a story such as this, is better served if the news stations agreed to "pool" video thereby reducing the chance of such an accident as this happening. I personally feel that the deceased newsmen died as a result of decision making on the part of the news directors and their departments wanting to be "first".
Now 4 people are dead, their families grieving, others have been traumatized as a result of basically, local TV stations covering the theft and chase of a stolen water truck, a stolen water truck! If anything, I think that the News Directors and Executive Producers, are the ones that owe the public and the victims families, an apology for the way that their News departments go overboard on “news” stories, dispatching their helicopters for stories that are not worth the cost that we as a community, witnessed on Friday...I am hoping that maybe TV stations will learn from this and re-vamp their criteria on what stories are really worth covering with a helicopter and the benefits and information that would best serve the public. I think that stations need to stop “doing news for news” sake and cover real stories. May God bless the guys from 3 & 15, their friends and colleagues, and especially their families in this sad time.
|
The writer speaks truth, IMHO.
__________________
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
Anais Nin
I Wish You Well. 
|