Checked in at 630 Sunday night to see if any of the local stations might be simulcasting live coverage of the Spokane stations working the big Coeur d'Alene story. I know that Tegna has a direct feed line from KREM in Spokane to KING and also can connect to KTVB in Boise, although Boise is a long distance away from the shooting scene and would likely not be in immediate play. But, no dice, KING had its own studio reporter but nothing from KREM. KOMO did not refresh the story at all on the half hour, which surprised me. At 6, they used video from KXLY, but nothing more. I hit KIRO about 6:32 and they were doing Pride coverage (it sponsors Pride). Fox 13 had a syndicated program of sorts so they were not interrupting for an breaking news update. Soccer ran over at 6.
The Spokane stations may have even begged off helping Seattle because of they were themselves dealing with the incident. Or they weren't asked. Or nobody thought to ask. For contrast, CNN did a solid job covering it nationally with instant analyis from an ex-top cop and ex-FBI boss, plus video from a Spokane affiliate. They were far more on top of it than Seattle, even though Coeur d'Alene is a WA neighbor. I thought they would do much, much better, not even phoners. It's a destination spot for Seattleites, especially. Again, weekend skeleton crews may have been in play in both markets.
Update at 8:15, man with firearm found dead, but I couldn't even find a lower third breaking news crawl on any of the Seattle stations with an update, who are in primetime programming of course. FOX Local App sent out a "Lockdown Lifted" update at 830. KIRO web site had it as well. KING web site still had an earlier story up that first responders were taking sniper fire, then updated about 8:40. KOMO was offering nothing new, not even on social. FWIW
With the number of significant breaking news events occurring on weekends increasing as of late, it may be worth it for stations to consider shifting an additional reporter or two from working only on weekdays to working on weekends and some weekdays, above and beyond the skeleton crews they presently have. It may also be worth considering having weeknight level talent anchor weekend newscasts.
ReplyDeleteFrom a viewer's standpoint, it looks like local newsrooms are shifting the other direction.
DeleteAs in, shifting more talent from weekends to weekdays?
DeleteWhat a horrible thing to happen. My thoughts are with the families of the victims.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. A senseless tragedy that shouldn't have happened. My sympathies to the families and friends of the victims.
DeleteBut the web coverage left a lot to be desired, too. Manpower issues for updating and posting on a Sunday night.
ReplyDelete