As hills near L.A. burned, TV was -- where? (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Los Angeles Times ^ | September 1, 2009 | Mary McNamara

[abb]

For three days, I couldn't find my fire on TV. And that's a problem -- before and after -- you've been evacuated from your La Crescenta home as I, my husband and my three children were in the early morning hours this weekend.

As a television critic, I have spent hours watching endless news loops of Octomom coverage, Tim Russert memorials and the Sarah Palin watch. Less than two months ago, I sat through at least an hour's worth of overhead shots of a freeway emptied in anticipation of Michael Jackson's memorial procession. An hour. Of empty freeway.

I have also been riveted by post-earthquake coverage and even other fires; not that long ago, I sat up into the small hours of the morning with my evacuee brother, watching flames roar through Griffith Park toward homes, including his, in Los Feliz. The cameras were so numerous and so close, you could see onto decks and into living rooms.

So why were so few news minutes and almost no imagery given over to the flames that for days now have busily consumed the hills behind my house? To find out what's actually happening, I have to drive up as far as the roadblocks allow, walk the rest of the way and peer through the smoke myself.

Not that I am averse to a bit of on-the-ground reporting, but this is a fire threatening at least five communities. What do we have to do to get a little blow-by-blow televised coverage? "If only Kate Gosselin lived in La Crescenta," I found myself thinking Monday morning as I watched KTLA-TV Channel 5 (which is owned by Tribune Co., as is The Times) move quickly off a brief report of the fire, then we'd have the news crews out in full force.

snip

[abb]

Interesting commentary

[abb]

ping

[abb]

But over the weekend, it was a virtual, and inexplicable, news blackout. Granted, Ted Kennedy's funeral preempted many stories, but hours before my neighborhood was placed under mandatory evacuation, I could find nothing, NOTHING, about the fire on any TV station, local or 24-hour news. It was as if it wasn't happening, except it was, because I could see it, sheets of flame rippling in the dark, just down the street and over the rise.

[abb]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-mtwilson-tv1-2009sep01,0,5978924.story
Los Angeles television stations defend their coverage of the fire

[Dr. Ursus]

I guess watching Fox News wasn’t an option!

[abb]

Television's weekend coverage prompted steady tweeting, with many observing that stations gave more time to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's funeral and scheduled sporting events than to the fire.

Added Antonovich: "Now people know more about the coroner report on Michael Jackson or the problems with Britney Spears' children than they knew about this fire."

[gthog61]

If Bush were still President and there was some way to blame FEMA for something you’d have heard about it. We’d hear how the firemen don’t have the right type of equipment or that this govt policy or that made it worse.

A bunch of people living in a near desert who don’t clear brush for some environmental reason or another makes these things sort of predictable.

[abb]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/business/media/01adco.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
For Magazines, the Down Days Continue

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/338981-FCC_Commissioners_Indicate_Range_of_Concerns_Solutions_For_Content_Blocking_Technologies.php
FCC Commissioners Indicate Range of Concerns, Solutions For Content-Blocking Technologies
Report raises questions as to scope of commission’s legal authority

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/339008-_Good_Chance_Fire_Hits_Mt_Wilson_Monday.php
‘Good Chance’ Fire Hits Mt. Wilson Monday
Crews hold out hope communications hardware can be salvaged

[abb]

Stations are taking precautions for reaching over the air viewers should the towers become damaged. A KCBS/KCAL spokesperson says the CBS duopoly is working with local cable and satellite providers to make sure viewers continue to receive the stations' signal via fiber from the stations' broadcast center in Studio City. The stations are also streaming all newscasts on their websites as a way to keep viewers connected to the day's vital news.

Other stations have also instructed viewers to look to their Websites for streaming news should the transmitters be rendered non-functional. KTLA.com, for one, offers a bright red banner on the home page that says, "If flames disrupt KTLA's TV signal, you can see KTLA programming here on KTLA.com."

Stations are asking viewers to pass along digital photos and video of the fire to assist in their newsgathering. Mt. Wilson is part of the San Gabriel Mountains and is located in Angeles National Forest.

[abb]

http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/
Monday Miscellany

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[benewton]

“Less than two months ago, I sat through at least an hour’s worth of overhead shots of a freeway emptied in anticipation of Michael Jackson’s memorial procession. An hour. Of empty freeway.”

Given that you did that, how could you expect anything in the way of coverage of major events?

You can, of course, expect the pablum to keep coming.

[maggief]

btt

[newfreep]

I see your hair is burnin
Hills are filled with fire
If they say I never loved you
You know they are a liar

Drivin down your freeways
Midnight alleys roam
Cops in cars, the topless bars
Never saw a woman...
So alone, so alone

[abb]

Of greatest significance here is that the TV stations are soliciting citizen reporting to keep up with events. And that the giant broadcast/transmitting facilities atop Mt. Wilson are nearly superfluous to communications any more.

Doubly so since the transmitter operators see fit to air wall-to-wall Kennedy funeral coverage instead of discharging their duties.

[abb]

http://media-newswire.com/release_1098001.html
DePaul Explores New Frontiers of Journalism with Courses on Twitter, Entrepreneurial Journalism

[Milhous]

I sat through at least an hour's worth of overhead shots of a freeway emptied in anticipation of Michael Jackson's memorial procession.

news biz as dead as
a corpse in a casket that
media shows off

corpse in the cellar
is Pinch's old grey lady
stinking up the place

[OpusatFR]

You are behind the curve. Our paper, The Virginian Pilot had a letter from the editor in it stating that people don’t want to hear the bad news all the time, so now the rag, er, paper will print Good(!) news.

Just pretend the fires don’t exist, kay?

Our media has turned into the biggest propagandists since the USSR. Notice how those 16% unemployed are pretty much invisible?

Obamanation means shut yo mouth!

[Tribune7]

I guess with Obama as president the directive is for disasters to be downplayed.

I mean, maybe there would be stories about his lack of a response and all.

Any reports of cannibalism in Griffith Park?

[abb]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d9286d90-9643-11de-84d1-00144feabdc0,dwp_uuid=811b60ba-8da8-11de-93df-00144feabdc0.html
Television executives reach for reset button

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2009/08/can_hulus_high.html
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090901/ap_en_tv/us_guiding_light_7
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=atOgCSewYxK0
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125174692730373541.html
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http://www.journalism.org/index_report/pej_news_coverage_index_august_2430_2009
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