Piss poor reporting in Tampa

It doesn't rise to the level of Haywood Jablome and I don't think Pickle Juice was involved, but a Tampa Bay TV station had a pretty amusing gaffe.

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/media/content/daily-show-strikes-again-bay-news-9-mistakenly-reports-pam-bondi-gave-show-urine-sample

Of course, they regretted the error: http://www.baynews9.com/article/news/2011/december/355618/BayNews9.com-correction

 

Awesome.

 

FWIW, Bay News 9 is kind of the daily shopper of Tampa Bay's news stations. It's a 24-hour placeholder owned by one of the cable companies that does a couple segments a day and then repeats them every 30 minutes. I guess that doesn't exempt them from jumping to conclusions on something like that, though.

 

I don't work there, and I don't have a dog in this fight, but that's a fairly inaccurate assessment of a news operation that has won national awards from SPJ and other prominent journalism organizations. It does a credible job of covering local news throughout the metro area, as far as TV news goes, and is a local affiliate of CNN through common ownership (Time Warner/BrightHouse). It's hardly a "daily shopper" or a "placeholder." Could the staff be bigger? Absolutely. Is the repetition rate high? It is, if you leave the channel on all day long -- which most viewers don't do.

Yeah, Bay News 9 fouled up on this story, but name one news organization that hasn't made a boneheaded error at some time.

 

Oh, I see what you did there.

 

I'm surprised to hear this. Every time I visit my parents, who still live in the area, they put this channel on throughout the day and I feel like punching myself in the face, especially considering the Tampa area has some of the best TV news crews in the country just on a different station. Has it gotten better in the last year or so? I'm not arguing with your assessment; I'm genuinely curious how our perception of it is so different.

 

If your folks keep it on all day -- and, indeed, some people do that -- it can be fairly mind-numbing, especially when there's no news happening (like during the holidays or on weekends), and the repetition gets overwhelming, particularly when they're repeating evergreen stories or regular local segments (restaurant reviews, pet of the week, etc.) that can hold up over two or three days.

The operation is very bare-bones (most reporters are one-man bands) and the graphics package hasn't been updated in more than a decade, but it's a professional operation. It shines brightest when there's breaking news. They're usually first with wall-to-wall coverage when it calls for it, and they do it without the breathless, HEY-WE'RE-LIVE-LISTEN-TO-ME! approach that the other stations adopt to justify cutting away from profitable syndicated programming.

I think the best analogy is, Bay News 9 is like the power company. It's there when you need it, and you can ignore it the rest of the time if you want to. It's not "appointment TV" by any stretch, but if you want to catch up on the headlines, it's a decent option.

 

The piss-poor reporting extends to the author of the blog post:

 

That part made me laugh. The premise for the blog seems to be the TV station being lazy and dumb, yet the writer admits he was just as lazy and dumb. Pot, meet kettle.

 

Isn't there actual motto: Bay News 9 - There When You Need It? I feel like I could hear that voice say it in my sleep.

And in hindsight my original comments were a little harsh, especial as I didn't mean to knock their professionalism or appearance. In fact, they look pretty slick, if I remember correctly. It just seemed like they never did a segment that had any in-depth sustenance. It was like they were a briefs package meant to be watched as you were putting on your tie in the morning or stopping at home to grab some lunch. I suppose that is its own niche and they're making money, so they're doing something right.

 

They're the local version of what Headline News used to be, back when it provided a useful service.

 

But with no Van Earl Wright.