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John Oliver's take on Crime Coverage is SPOT ON!

I have sat in many a news meeting in which a press release about a shooting, robbery, or assault is pitched. It's then assigned to a reporter or MMJ almost immediately. Why? It's easy. I have witnessed an ND and EP in one market say "this is our lead today" based on a press release and not knowing a single confirmed fact.

Shoot the scene, shoot the crime tape, and get the PIO's statement. Spend time finding a witness...(Oh, but not too much time as you are NOT approved for overtime). You have to get back to write, edit and be ready for a live shot in front of Police HQ in the dark where nothing is happening. God forbid anyone verifies facts, let alone proofread copy for typos, or white balance the camera. It all takes too long! at least the brainless tag will be constant..." police are investigating." Shocking revelation!

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Hi Scott:

From the “We have had enough, even though you may not have had enough” department….

Watching the final hearing on the January 6th insurrection over the air which began at 12 noon (on Thursday, October 13, 2022), WCYB-TV (the Sinclair station in Bristol, VA affiliated with NBC-TV) suddenly bails out in the middle of someone’s testimony at 2:10 PM and immediately joins Jennifer Hudson’s talk show in progress.
When I called the station to ask why they did that, I was told that they were only supposed to carry two hours of the hearing anyway over the air (never mind that’s the hearing started well after 12 noon anyway), and that the hearing was available live on their website. A big fat thanks for telling the OTA viewers that information beforehand.

What a way to force traffic to their webpage and to sacrifice news to air yet another bathroom remodel ad.

An aside… Sinclair has done this before with ABC News bulletins, special reports and program interrupts. If they feel that the audience at some of their stations isn’t getting enough commercial messages, they’ll simply bail out right in the middle of a special report to either join a local program in progress or one of their news anchors comes on to explain in a carefully crafted statement that the special report is available on their website. In this case, they just went to local with no explanation at all.

Please do us ole-time TV news professionals a big favor and take Sinclair to task for depriving the viewers of at least two of their TV stations the chance to watch news considered important in the history of our country.

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Scott,

Jennifer Dale’s recruiting email omits a crucial detail about Gray’s $18/hour minimum wage. It does not apply to employees who are under contract. The company even admitted this in August when it first announced the minimum wage. Unless Gray plans to get rid of contracts for news employees, the company can pay you less than $18/hour as long as it’s stipulated in your contract.

Loopholes like this are why the TV news business is reaping what it long sowed.