KIRO reporter Jake Chapman broke into national CBS PGA golf coverage at 2:10 to carry a Governor's press conference about the terrible and tragic Spokane wildfire crisis. Bold move from a new ND, but this could have been recorded and played back at 3 pm instead of interuppting a sports event heading for a conclusion. However, KIRO airs a paid program at 3, so pre-empting that would cost money. I wonder if that was considered. On the other hand, pre-empting golf in Seattle for a Spokane story will likely cause the station phones to light up. That always happens fwiw. BTW, KOMO aired paid programming at 2:30, Fox 13 in Seafair Live, KING in WNBA. KIRO broke away from the newser after a half-hour and brought weatherman Van Winkle in for a fire forecast. By the time golf returned, it was already decided at 2:45.
I am a big believer in doing coverage like this on TV when the story demands it, not just web, but should this breaking news have been pushed to the KIRO site because is wasn't 'local-local.' I think KING and Fox streamed it. Didn't check 4. Thoughts?
This is a tricky one.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, following right on the heels of KIRO's strong coverage of the Bite of Seattle shooting and its aftermath, it shows that KIRO is now much more serious when it comes to covering major breaking stories than they were even a few months ago.
On the other hand, interrupting the golf for a story that, thankfully, isn't directly impacting Western Washington, probably wasn't the wisest move. This could have been streamed live online with a crawl on TV directing people to the coverage, and then aired on TV right after the golf wraps up or on KIRO's 4pm newscast.
Totally agree. TV crawl pushing people to the web. That's the play. Kudos.
ReplyDeleteSeconded Wayne. First thing I want to say is I feel the ND should get a shout for wanting to be more aggressive about breaking news but in this particular case, you are right that this probably could have been shifted to web exclusive especially as everyone else was doing it that way. Interrupting that golf broadcast probably did anger some people but I doubt they got too many calls about it as they probably didn't have too many watching to begin with with it competing against both Seafair and the Mariners game. The other thing too was this was a non-Seattle story so that also I feel would allow for them to do it as web exclusive.
DeleteI think they made the right decision, 600 structures destroyed. This is a catastrophic and historic event for Washington state. People in Western Washington have family/friends in Spokane and want the updates. These breaking news stories and weather is what gets people to turn on linear. Bold move KIRO! Bravo!
ReplyDelete