Climber coverageSubmitted by LynnS on Sun, 12/17/2006 - 3:14pm.
Looks like they've found the snow cave, but so far no one's broken in. KGW.com and KATU.com are on the story, but no local TV coverage though CNN and Fox are both taking feeds from the locals. Interesting. Use this thread for coverage comments. UPDATE: One climber found dead. ( topics: General Media )
the howls that would inundate the switchboard if they switched away from football for this. I would not want to be answering the phone, or even clearing the voicemail. What I'm not understanding is why they don't put up an occasional crawl. ----- As I watch CNN's coverage they're showing the footage as being from "KOIN-KPTV". I assume they're toggling back and forth between news choppers, but it's weird seeing that on the screen. ETA: Who's behind the lens for KOIN? You're getting some nice shots. Very pretty stuff, though the feed I'm watching right now is reminding me uncomfortably of that one helicopter crash a few years ago... ----- You're seeing the "KOIN/KPTV" credit on FOX Newschannel and CNN because KOIN and KPTV share the helicopter. It's the same chopper - Air 12 is painted on the starboard side, NewsChopper 6 is painted on the port side. If one station flys, the other station can record the video feed or take the signal live as long as the non-flying station agrees to split the cost of flying in that instance. Today, KOIN is flying. KOIN and KPTV use the same choppers...that is why CNN is crediting both affliates. Btw, howcome Sky8 or JetRanger2 aren't in the area? Or are they? KPTV broke in for about 2 minutes to show part of a news conference. There was no anchor intro, and no supers to indicate whether it was live, who was talking, or what the heck was happening. Weird. I'm in Los Angeles and have been able to watch continuous coverage since before noon on FoxNews and CNN. I'm in Los Angeles and have been able to watch continuous coverage since before noon on FoxNews and CNN.
It's a shame that no local affiliate is carrying the coverage as we know that most of the affiliates are capable (CNN and FoxNews are both using a local affiliate's copter (not sure which one because it says KOIN/KPTV)). Many prayers and much hope being sent north to Oregon! It's both, KPTV/KOIN share a chopper. Finally. ("Finally" as in overall finally, not just this story.) They've got it on their front page now too. ----- Just came through in RSS, and I just saw KPTV put up a brief crawl. ----- Makes me wonder how influential the blog is. ;) (I know the plans were probably in the works before this thread went up but it always makes me giggle...) ----- Every newsroom in the city watches this blog to determine what type of coverage a given story warrants. I produce my show based on what I read here. It would be a great story to have these climbers come off the mountian alive!! That's pretty impressive if they're switching back and forth between the two choppers...because they're one in the same. After 2 hours? I'm confused. I know it's Sunday, but with the weather break, everyone knew this weekend would be the Big Push. Very surprising... I understand to some extent why KPTV and KOIN aren't covering live because of the popularity of NFL football and the backlash from trying to pre-empt. But KGW and KATU are showing a lame ice skating exhibition and a lame golf tournament, respectively. What a wasted opportunity for them to go wall-to-wall and own the big story. So far they've found an empty snow cave with equipment and no people. They still may not be found until Spring. Cut in, yes.. Crawl yes. Wall to wall... no. There is easily enough material to go wall to wall, especially now that one of the climbers has been found. KATU is wall to wall right now and seems to have plenty to talk about. Or at least what I've learned: That Air12 and News Chopper 6 are the same. Who knew! Uh, everybody but me, apparently... In any event, whoever the shooter is, you're getting good stuff. ----- Did KATU break this story. I didn't see anyone else report the climber was dead, just KATU. Nick talked to someone who told him the sad news. While he was reporting that, I flipped to KOIN and Alexis was babbling about how they didn't know the climber's condition. 1 climber found dead. Breaking news, CNN. KATU? Nope. Freakin' amazing. Glad to see KGW brought in the A-team tonight, including Matt Zaffino. It was also nice to see CNN's Rob Marciano (formerly of KATU) mention Matt Zaffino over the air...glad to hear they still keep in contact. Glad to see KGW brought in the A-team tonight, including Matt Zaffino.
Why would they do that? I saw it but don't understand. It's not like KGW had news to get ready for 5PM (except a news brief). So, unless I see Amy and Nancy out reporting tonight, I don't think Laurel and Tracy should have been there. (It would be nice to actually see the anchors do some reporting IN THE FIELD!) I was talking about Joe and Laurel. They shouldn't kick Nancy and Amy off so they can put the regular anchors on..... I would like to see Joe and Laurel out in the field! is that if it was worth it one day, why wasn't it worth it the next? Why wasn't it worth it when the climber's body was found? Maybe once they did it for that one day they realized it was too hard to do and took up too much time in transporting people and things. Does KOIN have a staff on duty on weekends? KGW broke in for a few moments while KOIN is still showing infomercials. Wow. Just wow. KOIN doesn't have weekend morning news so the evening news team probably doesn't come in until the afternoon. I find it amazing and amusing that CNN has more coverage than local Portland affiliates. (I understand KOIN due to football, but the others are just plain wrong.) However, CNN ran part of KATU's 5:00 today, before realizing that of course they can do it better. >>1 climber found dead. Breaking news, CNN. >>KATU? Nope. >>Freakin' amazing. Just for the record..KATU was way out front on that...maybe ten minutes or more. Kinda stuck their neck out. They had word of the fatality from Portland Mountain Rescue while CNN was q&a'ing one of the flacks on the earlier snow cave discovery and didn't do the fatality until it broke on AP. (I wonder at KATU's decision to go with news of the fatality so fast. Let the families find out before you run it. I've never been a believer in rushing to air with news like that. There's a reason why the flacks were holding off.) I saw heard the fatality confirmed via a live phoner with one of the Sheriff PIO's on FOX News (no not you KPTV the big dogs), a full 10 minutes before any of the little locals went live. How does Fox national know and go, before their own freakin' local? I was impressed with local coverage for a while on this story up until this weekend. National came in with their crews and showed why Portland local is on the ball as long as its not the weekend. TINY TOWN!!!!! Careful when comparing the local stations to CNN & FOX... CNN and FOX are fully-staffed to do 24 hours-a-day news coverage 365 days a year. So... if CNN or FOX decides that they want to put all their resources into a story in little 'ole Oregon, then you'll see a full-court press from them that dwarfs the resources of the weekend staff at each of Portland's local stations. That's what we saw Sunday. And CNN & FOX don't have to worry about the consequences of interrupting scheduled paid programming or NFL games. That said... it was clear that the weather was going to be cooperative for a full-scale search and rescue operation this weekend. I agree that the local stations should've anticipated that there would be significant developments to this story (given the weather forecast) this weekend. Instead, it seemed like all four stations were in a "scramble to react" mode, instead of a "totally prepared for this predictable breaking news" mode. (KATU did the best, and was the quickest & most aggressive... but was still lacking). Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but if I were a news manager, I would've made sure that my station had enough extra staff (including production folks) in place at all hours this weekend so that live coverage could begin instantly and smoothly when the inevitable news broke. Does anyone know why the one guy was left in a snow cave by himself? I've been looking for recent news on that but found nothing. Didn't he call his wife from the cave? Is he injured? Since no news source is saying why he's there all alone it seems a bit weird. Does anyone know why the one guy was left in a snow cave by himself? I've been looking for recent news on that but found nothing. Didn't he call his wife from the cave? Is he injured? Since no news source is saying why he was there all alone it seems a bit weird. Early on that one climber was injured and the two others set out for help. I imagine the injured climber tried to make his way to a lower elevation when the bad weather worsened. Even in a snow cave at 11,000 feet, it's still freakin' freezing. At any sign of better weather it is wise to get to some lower elevation. Sounds like that may have been what one of them did. He was found only 300 feet below the summit. Doesn't seem like much of a "lower elevation". And why weren't the other two with him? They all had a better chance of survival if they had caved together. They were all experienced climbers. It just doesn't add up. So I'm awake at 6:30 this morning, and there's Chad Carter anchoring the morning news solo, and sometimes you have to do this kind of thing. You obviously haven't seen them do this before, as a lot of time on a story like this they will have a reporter live at 10p.m. and then the next morning they are on GDO. That's a quick turnaround. And as someone who was in Hood River, you should feel more sorry for the CNN and FOX News people who just stand out there for hours on end, and for what was about 10 to 12 hours at a time reporting. I mean how much talking can you do in a day without going hoarse? And not get tired of standing out there in the cold? I guess that's why they had local reporters going on CNN and FOX News, probably so thier own reporters had a 2 minute break to rest their voice and take a seat. KATU.com video is hard to watch. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Alsom, when it does, you can't fast forward!! It was funny to see someone in the newsroom over at KGW watching KATU while Nancy Francis was fronting a report. It seems that all you want to do is complain about something. You would rather switch all around the dial to see what everyone is doing rather than stay on one channel to see what they are even saying or doing. You are more interested in what someone is doing rather than the content of what they are doing. First, Fox News Channel is NOT Fox Entertainment Network. KPTV is NOT Fox News Channel. KPTV is a Fox Entertainment Network Affiliate. KPTV is NOT a Fox News Channel affiliate. You are looking for who is first.... who is on the longest... wall to wall.... etc. Yet, when (according to Spiro@9:39PM) KATU stuck their neck out and mentioned the fatality first, you question them doing that. You want stations to be first to say something and when they do you want to complain that they should have waited (for whatever reason). You just can't win. I remember years ago, when the Fremont bridge was being built, they raised the main span from a barge and bolted it into position on the ramps. KATU had a camera at the Riverboat Restaurant pointed at the thing and they taped the whole thing....... just in case something went wrong. Talk about watching grass grow. It was riveting coverage. Even had an anchor down there covering it. It took a whole weekend for the process. For those of you that haven't got a life, I suppose sitting in front of the tv watching a helicopter flying around doing nothing but showing pretty pictures of Mt. Hood on a nice day is compelling viewing. It is fine for a cable news station to provide that nonstop all day. But for a regular broadcaster to cover "nothing" is pointless. Sure, have it out there paying attention and when something happens or is breaking, cut in to the thing for coverage at that time. I could care less about football but some do. For some, skating exhibitions/football/get rich quick with no money infomercials/etc., are more important than a mountain rescue effort. You may not think so but that is reality. Overall, with a few exceptions, I believe the local stations coverage of this whole thing has been good. Moreso than the Kim coverage (that you all complained about, also). KATU has covered all the press conferences live that they have had with no interruptions or commentary. They have had crews up there covering this thing continuously. I am sure the other stations have also done this. Where do you think the CNN's and Fox's were getting their coverage from? Even though the locals were not on it full time, their crews were up there shooting video and uplinking their stuff to their respective networks and news partners as well as themselves. Often while they had crews out covering other news.. such as the Beaverton transformer fire, the windstorm, etc. There is more than one news story to cover locally. KATU broke into programming throughout the day when something significant occured to report on Sunday. They covered the daily press conference when it occured in the 9AM hour. They interrupted golf for lengthy (15-20 minutes) breaking reports at 12:25 and 2:10. They did a full hour at 3:30 when it broke that one climber was found and then announced that it was a fatality. Then did lengthy coverage in their 5PM newscast. I checked around 4:20 and saw that only KATU and KPTV were carrying any coverage. KGW was in Football and I don't remember what KOIN was doing but it was not climber coverage. There is a difference in level of commitment and obligations on the different stations. Granted. But comparing the locals to the dedicated news channels is not comparing the same thing. If you want to watch grass grow, (and that is ok) then watch the cable news channels. However, I believe the local stations will interrupt and cover important developments as they occur. Which for most non news junkies is sufficient. Now back to the original complaining and griping. "You want stations to be first to say something and when they do you want to complain that they should have waited (for whatever reason). You just can't win." Um, yeah... That's becuase there are multiple people posting these blogs, and some of them have different ideas on what is good news coverage. Anyone notice that MSN.com's homepage today (12/19) has a picture of the deceased climber with a backdrop of what I believe is Mt. Rainier. I had thought this site was all about the media. How it works, what makes it tick, why things are done certain ways. That having been said, I tend to agree with most of what you wrote. Seven hours of wall to wall coverage on CNN Sunday IS like grass growing. And the worst part is the repetition. The same news, the same video over and over and over again. It must work, though, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it. I'm surprised they didn't have to trot out the al qaeda (sic) warriors on the monkey bars video loops! Oh wait, maybe they did. :-) Viewer Rick I was running around today and my wife called, she said there was some breaking developments on the story. So I tune into KXL to see what's going on. What do I get? Lars Larson (who I don't listen to) being critical of the climbers and the sheriff and pretty much anyone with a pulse who has anything to do with this incident. He is talking to some Portland Mountain Rescue person, the name escapes me, and asks him about these mountain locator things -- the guy just blows him off and says he has other people to call and hangs up. I thought to myself, good idea, and put Elmo back on for my daughter. It's a sad day when Elmo is a better choice than local talk radio. :) I don't know who listens to him, but the limited amount I do catch, just makes me hate him even more. Maybe the Portland Mountain Rescue should have told Lars that for $5, the rescuers would have known a week ago where the climbers were within 10 feet. People have been saved in horrible weather because of those things. $5 to save your life, pretty cheap and pretty dumb not to use one. And then you can hang up. Seems to me Lars has done everything he can to ruin this state (but of course then moved to Washington). He and is ilk were thumped in the election. I don't want him doing any more damage to this state. It seems like he's on a downhill slide with his attacks on everybody and everything in Oregon. I think we're tired of it. I don't turn him on anymore at all. I don't hate "him" but I hate how he has harmed Oregon if that's different. Viewer Rick and his hate-buddies. They'll always have an audience because there is a vast reservoir of ignorance and bigotry. But he and rush will forever be marginalized. I wish they were marginalized as far as sleeping under a bridge. They deserve it. I would like to settle this locator debate. Should the climbers on Mt. Hood have carried a mountain locator unit or MLU? Yes it would have been a good idea. Would it have saved them? Not likely. Yes the mlu would have told searchers were to look but the problem was weather. Knowing where to search is one thing gettting to the climbers is another matter. All last week searchers were being blown off the mountain, having to retreat because of high winds, white out conditions and high avalanche danger. No an mlu would would not have helped save them. And just in case you're wondering yes I've climbed Hood and a few other mountains. As for Lars well he's just Lars kind of like your little brother always stirring the pot. There is extensive, and I do mean extensive debate on this at www.cascadeclimbers.com. No, the weather wasn't any good the first few days of the search. And before anyone jumps on the whole MLU Required for all climbers, you'd better get a better understanding of thier limitations and the circumstances where they may likely be useful. More to the point, mountain rescues are a tiny percentage of overall rescues both in terms of actual number as well as costs. If you require them for climbers, then you'd better require them for hikers, fishermen, people with alzheimers, children and mushroom pickers, who incidentally get lost A LOT according to the stats. And yup if I'm an alzheimers patient, I'd want a locator unit right there on my person! :-) I don't hike or fish or mushroom hunt (except for WinCo and CostCo) but if I did go out into the wild, I'd sure have a locator on my person. Why not? Viewer Rick i bet they would recommend that future climbers on Mt Hood spend the 5 bucks on a locator. Hubris can be fatal. Post new comment |
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The only Portland news we can get in Bend is KOIN, and they covered the noon-time news conference for all of a few minutes before going back to their precious NFL game. So I'm watching KOIN's feed via CNN. Stupid? Yes.
http://utterlyboring.com/archives/2006/12/17/shame_on_you_ko.php