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Show with the same thing: the Dalai Lama’s arrival in Utah. All the stations except KSL (NBC affiliate) comprehensively covered who he is and why he is in exile from his native Tibet. KSL briefly addressed the Buddhist leader's history. The station covered only what happened that day and didn’t go into the story’s background. It was also the only station that did not interview members of the local Tibetan community. ; The stations were all guilty of promotional gimmicks. Web sites, upcoming programming and the morning show promotions are now built-in parts of newscasts. Fox News did a story on dwarfism and the plight of "little people." Half of the story was shown during the first half hour. The second half aired in the last 30 minutes, but was promoted at every break. It was a well-done, interesting story, but the promos got to be a bit much. KSL pointed viewers to their own website and an article appearing in the next day’s Deseret News. It also did a mini-story on an interview airing the next night with Steve Young and his new family. KUTV (CBS station) has the mother of all toys: a news helicopter. I’m not sure which stories would be fundamentally improved by aerial shots, but this evening the best thing it could come up with was a shot of long-time anchor Michelle King watching a soccer COPTEE COWBOY _ TN TELLURIDE, COLORADC YOU CAN'T MISS US ON COLORADO AVENUE. game. Similar to KSL, it also had a promo for an interview with another Utah favorite: Donny Osmond. KTVX (ABC affiliate) in its first block did a story on sick foals in Kentucky. An. interesting story, but I wonder if they would have covered it if they didn'’t have footage of a baby horse surrounded by doctors in a hospital bed. There was also a segment called, -“Tomorrow’s Headlines," which shows which stories would lead tomorrow’s newspapers. Cheers Jon. Couldn’t they have just reported those stories, instead of wasting time showing newspaper headlines? Here are some of the other stories the stations covered: an electrical fire at a Salt Lake restaurant (would this be newsworthy if it happened in St. George?), a water main break at the airport, a home break-in and a new cancer pill. The stations also did some memorable pieces: Channel 5’s Ed Yeats did an in-depth report about a program at the Huntsman Cancer Center, which helps kids cope with dying or sick parents. There were several elements to the story and Yeats interviewed around eight sources. It was a human-interest story, but it was comprehensive and well done. Y, N It's summer, Ken. Time to switch to iced Mochas... ‘ G ‘ { jf ne! se =} | \, Fox’s dwarfism story touched an often-ignored segment of the population. Channel 4 explored the plight of a couple who wanted to take care of foster children, but couldn’t because the husband carried a concealed weapon. It examined issues of gun rights and child safety. Each station had a combination of quality news and gimmicky stunts. Weather does seem to get more time than any one story. Va; 3 rr. aS i iron Quy Br Moving On 3 I finally quit the full-time TV job. I am relieved I no longer have to write about twoheaded calves. I don’t watch the local TV news anymore. I listen to the radio and’ read newspapers. But television is still the most accessible medium and if its news doesn’t comprehensively cover the community, most of the population will not be informed. With voter apathy at an all time high, it is frustrating that TV news has to a large degree cut out political, social and environmental issues. Utah news from outside the Wastach Front hardly exists anymore. The Salt Lake media recently covered a million dollar fishing contest at Lake Powell which says something about the depth of news coverage. It wasn’t always like this. Several years ago, reporters went to southern Utah to cover the chaining by the BLM of public land forests near Moab and —S J ~ SS | \ ((/dy reported extensively on political corruption behind the proposed Book Cliffs Highway. _ Television reporters even used this paper as an investigative reporting source. The stories were several minutes long and incorporated many sources. Now, these topics would not make a blip on the news radar screen. They are not "sexy" enough and cannot be covered in two minutes. The ratings game is killing quality media. Recently, the station that got me into this business has been caught red handed in the ratings charade. After 40 years of dedicated work, KUER unceremoniously gave classical music announcer, Gene Pack, two days notice to vacate his show. The man who helped start the station was relegated to voicing promotions for arts and culture events in Utah. The station replaced his unique, one-of-a-kind program with syndicated national programming. Another public radio station, KCPW, already airs most of the new programs. Just weeks after the change, KUER bought familiar voice." The station insists the decision was 3 years with open checkbooks. After I left the station, replaced with a more regional program called } bus ads reading, "Hear the world from a in the making, but it failed to tell members Friday Edition was cancelled. Later it was Radio West. Now, I’m hearing promotions that.this local program is going to start airing at 11 a.m. right in the middle of what was Pack’s show. The decisions look like crisis management for a station, which refuses to acknowledge it made a mistake. | I don’t know what to make of these debacles. It is hard to remain idealistic when educating the public is no longer the number one goal of news organizations. Thomas Jefferson once said, "The people cannot be safe without information." Which just goes to prove, what you don’t know can hurt you. Sj Alexandra L. Woodruff can be reached at: sasawoodruff@hotmail.com ChrisMuhr's ALL METALS WELDING & FABRICATION CO. 1707 I-70 Bus. Loop Grand Jct., CO 81501 970.243.6310 FX: 970.241.5917 CUSTOM FABRICATION DRY BOXES BOAT PROP REPAIR RAFT FRAMES Chris tries fo paddle out of ad, is turned back at the border. the Salt Lake Roasting Co. CALL TOLL-FREE: 800.748.4887 Open every day 7am ‘til midnight ‘Buy Coffee NOW...or Forever Hold Your Beans." 320 East 400 South in Downtown Salt Lake City |