Local TV news operations love this fountain in Walnut Creek. It's where they do a lot of MOS's, (Man on street interviews).
Let's take Walnut Creek straight up with a fast ball.
Have you noticed that a lot of the interviewees are women in their 30's? They tend to be perky blonds and brunettes. That's popular, as is the token minority that is asked what he or she thinks about the war in Iraq or the war on terror too. Invariably, in the background, there's a lot more white people though and they might be eating an ice cream bar or sipping coffee. That's what the TV guys love.
Better yet, that's what the station marketing people love and want. The consultants get big bucks too for this world-changing philosophy. I'm trying to be sarcastic here. I think you get my drift.
Walnut Creek is demo nirvana for the Bay Area TV media minions --Walnut Creek has a lot of younger, white, professional people with disposable income that like to buy cars, mattresses, high-def TV monitors, computers and go to the movies and ostensibly, watch local TV news and have IPhones. At least that's what the consultants want you to see.
When's the last time you saw an MOS interview in, say, Oakland? Maybe Jack London Square or the Rockridge Safeway but that's it. Berkeley? Never. Emeryville? Nope. San Carlos? Get real. Richmond? Yeah, so long as it's Point Richmond and that's even a stretch.
Draw your own conclusion. I have.
*Follow me on Twitter
I have drawn my conclusion.
ReplyDeleteYou are an idiot.
So, I'm assuming a turkey on sourdough at Tommy's Joynt it out of the question.
DeleteI would not walk across the street to piss on you if you were on fire.
DeleteRich, if it will make you feel better, I definitely WOULD cross the street to piss on you, on fire or otherwise.
Delete"F and B": seriously, dude, that's because you don't have a pot to piss in.
DeleteKTVU does a lot of standups in Jack London Square because, frankly, it's almost next door to the station.
ReplyDeleteI watch KTVU a lot and they do the WC fountain quite a bit...I've seen a few JLSquare MOS's but it's rare.
Deletelol Love it, Rich.
ReplyDeleteHilarious post and yet, if we're all being honest with ourselves - it's very true. All you commenters, get off your high horse, take a breath and realize (unless you are one), no one is going to think you're a racist or bigot.
This post is so true. But I think what it validates is my opinion that "news" and television in general is nothing more than entertainment. It's NOT to be taken seriously and the last thing we should do is let what we see/hear on it mold our views. Whether its a sexy brunette with perky tits or a hagard old chinese dude in West SF, their opinions are as about as useful as a used piece of toilet paper.
But I think this post is a really good one and if not taken too seriously is a great conversation piece for a Friday. I just hope no one overreacts.
Perhaps you could do a remote of Lieberman Live from the fountain and ask passersby whether they are pimps or hoes?
ReplyDeleteSounds good to me. Let's do it!
DeleteI live in Houston Tx, where we have the opposite side of the coin. Our local NBC affiliate seems to always interview people with questionable intelligence, missing teeth and enormous girth. Sometimes it's just painful to watch. This is the station who gave the world "Kapooyah" (Google it...)
ReplyDeleteRich, you are stating the obvious. Board Room of Advertisers put their money towards their likeness and where they will get the best bang for the buck, in their opinion. It's their money.
ReplyDeleteFrom a Radio standpoint, would love to get your take on 95.7 the game with like, close to zero minorities. The Guru hasn't been on in a while and Henry Wolfford (who I love) is only used when someone is sick or on vacation. All other jocks are white.
The Bay Area is a melting Pot and I wish the MEDIA represented that a little more. Wishful thinking.
The Game is, yes, lots of white guys, same too for KNBR but that's old news.
DeleteAnd,they just got out of their big black SUV. Wearing those giant oversized sunglasses. If you think that's a joke stand on any busy corner of Dublin-Pleasanton-San Ramon-and the like. They aren't just common,they are lined up in a row at a red light.
ReplyDeleteI know those who say Rich..that's the good life,if you have money you can be like them. And that's not all true. Unless you have obvious big money,your just a talking ape in the neighborhood. Rod Serling had it right..
What happened to the true "MOS" moments? It seems like consultants have ruined each spontaneous moment in the news coverage, retail environment (notice how each store is set the same), and taken away the essence of our diverse humanity...only to be replaced by the scripted, uniformly uninformed person.
ReplyDeleteRichard, thanks for sharing the truth with us...
Before reading about you on BASG, I thought like 99% of the Radio Media were hacks. I stumbled on this blog through the BASG article and now I listen to the poscasts and check in on this blog daily. Everyday is the funnest reading I have.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, you bring up stuff everybody is afraid to mention ...... but everybody is thinking. Keep carving your nitch, screw the haters!
Thanks for having impeccable taste.
DeleteMr I worked in a news room. Your station must have been to busy filming water going down a drain on a rainy day.
DeleteDon't know if Rich has ever worked in a newsroom (doubt it by his atrocious writing skills), but I have. No desk sends a crew out JUST to do an MOS. They get a crew that's already out on a story and get them to get some bites on their way home. They'll naturally send them to the nearest public place with LOTS of people who are in the mood to talk, because you only have about fifteen minutes to do these things. I've seen MOSes at the WC fountain, but also on Telegraph in Berkeley (just saw one last night), in Jack London Sq, on Market St. in SF, and at Bay Street in Emeryville, to name a few. Some things aren't part of an evil consultant/capitalist conspiracy, sorry. They just go where the people are. Looking for MOSes in a nunnery or on International Boulevard in a crackhouse wouldn't make much sense.
ReplyDeleteBoy, you have a shitload of time on your hands, Mr. "I worked in TV News", big fucking deal.
DeleteI didn't infer there's a "conspiracy", idiot--read the fucking post, I just said that WC gets a lot of camera time--that's it, you're the one, schmuck, who has the guilt complex.
Rich, you're coming across as a very angry man. The comment was a little hostile but does it really call for all that name-calling?
DeletePost your CV D-Bag
DeleteIt will not take you long to draft it.
But you READ me--can't get enough of me and I appreciate the feedback, love ya all.
DeleteI didn't infer there's a "conspiracy"..... yep, you are right - but you may have implied it! The writer or speaker implies, the reader or listener infers. I hope you appreciate the feedback!
DeleteEven worse than the 30 yr old Empty Heads Is when Mr or Mrs reporter asks a 5 year old Kid a question about something he or she knows nothing about. The Reporter will always spend the 45 seconds filming the Kid stuttering the Answer. Who gives a crap what a 5 Year old in Walnut Creek thinks about School closings in Oakland?
ReplyDeleteThe SF media also loves to interview White middle class liberals in the Marina district.
ReplyDeleteLife is beautiful.
Speaking white people, go to Piedmont and Rockridge.
ReplyDeletePlenty to see there.
Is 2 stacking the deck by location choice just to get the answers they want or find convenient? No, not really.
ReplyDelete1) "most are blond or brunette"...statistically, most are. Most are right handed as well.
2)"disposable income"...Yup, voting tax payers, the ones paying for the wars you used as an example are also active consumers. They also are more likely to have college degrees and are likely to have intelligent opinions worth filming.
3)"white"...there seem to be alot of them, everywhere.
4)"war in Iraq"...more likely that WC or a neighboring city has a resident in the war. When was the last time I saw a coverage about a Berkeley/Emeryville/SF resident killed in action? Never. Ever.
4.1) Side note...I think the way the PBC news hour shows the images of the war casualties in silence is both admirable and powerful. They aren't just KIA stats, they are people with short lives that will be missed.
5)"30's"...older or married with kids are more likely to be busy to home or exhausted at home, less likely to be out and about.
Rich, the dots do not connect and I think this is really about you having an axe to grind with the water fountain industry.
Almost clever. Except that blond is rare in the eastbay overall..go over the hills and suddenly it's Sweden. The economic gap between them and woman of color is enormous..sad really. The only woman of color thee are going to work and the blond trophys are jogging,giving attitude of entitled all the way...
DeleteNews programs try to avoid sticking mic's in front of folks like you 11:07. Always with a race based victim agenda that can manipulated to fit any situation or topic. Sad really.
Delete1219..SWEDEN, I TELL YOU!.
DeleteSounds like Auntie l is fiddlin with the computer on tax payers time again.
DeleteRegarding #4 the reason we never see stories about ” fallen soldiers” from Berkeley is that people here are informed and don't allow their kids to enlist and go to fight fake wars on behalf of the imperialist pigs.
DeleteBerkeley~cowards hiding within the borders others keep safe.
DeleteI enjoyed the coverage of the 3 berkeley nit wits several years ago, you remember them, traveling around the iranian country side picking flowers. What valuable life skills did college teach them? Not so informed.
Typical Berkeley kid, goes to college, gets a degree in some worthless field of study like ancient rodent philosophy, then can't get a job upon graduation and whines about how the tax payers should pick up their school fees. The few that actually get jobs with their useless majors, end up sucking off of grant money.
700pm . It always works to come back with a racist remark. That shows those dang lib'rels who's smarter!
DeleteIs there anything more tedious in the news biz than the forced "local reaction" story? What a former editor told me at newspapers more than 20 years ago still applies: "There is so much dead-thinking in this business." Sex and wrecks and if it bleeds it leads.
ReplyDeleteSaturday is supposed to be hot inland, so expect a remote from next to the clock/temp sign at the First Republic Bank in WC on at least two or three channels Saturday night.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I hear you; comfort level and all that. The thing that gets me - and it's almost always KTVU - is when a news segment starts with a shooting, then a fire, then a given city and their financial situation, with just bare bones information about each item... then we get :90 on the Danville lions club pancake breakfast or a bunch of kids in Orinda get to go someplace exotic cause one of the parents cashed in a stock option.
ReplyDeleteAlso,its not so much as white,as the strange secession of beautiful white people to the outer bay area. Its cultural cleansing. Woman there don't eat,they jog. And the posing? off the charts. Every move,every interest,every view, has to be what the beautiful people do.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I like Berkeley so much. Beautiful white woman without that...attitude. They will smile at you. In the outer bay area,they toss crackers at the talking zoo manimal. Berkeley is an island to itself.
Why don't y'all get smart and stop watching TV news? Watch the damn Food Network or TNT. TV news gets worse by each and every passing day. If you need to watching something to provide white noise in your house, watch The Golf Channel. Don't patronize TV news. It sucks. Real bad. Really, who the hell cares what some rich missy from Alamo thinks about the heat wave. Now if she says she shaves her privates and sunbathes in the buff, we've got something here. Otherwise, who gives a rat poop?
ReplyDeleteWha? You mean a media outlet seeks out people who are a reflection of their audience and the demographic their advertisers target?
ReplyDeleteWhat will they think of next?
I wonder where KDTV/Univision goes?
You are right. It's all about the folks who have power and money and who vote.
ReplyDeleteSo what else is new?
We call those women "WCB's" short for Walnut Creek B*tches
ReplyDeleteWalnut Creek is full of women with fake tits with an air of arrogance like they're the house wives of New York except their husbands are usually plumbing contractors, not moguls. That whole downtown area reeks of wanna be's trying a little too hard. Give me Berkeley or Oakland any day where the women are real and intellectual.
ReplyDeleteAs a long time Walnut Creek resident, I must concur with a lot of the views of Walnut Creek expressed here. I am a self employed landscaper, and there have been plenty of times I've walked into a downtown Starbucks or Safeway and gotten looks and/or treatment as if I were a homeless gal living under the bridge. The nasty looks mainly come from these soccer moms who would never dream of getting their fake nails dirty from digging in this CoCo clay, much less expose their tender botoxed skin to sunshine. The minute Tiffany's came into town, Walnut Creek became a joke.
ReplyDeleteWalnut Creek is full of fake wannabees. There is some much more money in San Francisco but the clientiele is down to earth. I love shopping in San Francisco but hate prentitious Walnut Creek.
ReplyDeleteThat's it. On the bus in San Fran a man can get a purty girl to smile back also. Like in Berkeley...but go through that Caldecott tunnel and emerge into the world of the neo beautiful and hipsters from hell. Nothing- NOTHING like the real thing.
DeleteWalnut Creek is the OC or Hollywood of the Bay Area. Lot of shops, everyone owns similar cars...the women have fake body parts, tans...and so do some of the men.
ReplyDeleteWC and it's inhabitants are as phony as a 3 dollar bill. I hate going there. Give me the real deal in Oakland, Berk or Hayward.
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with white people? And actually, The Creek is a lot more diverse than portrayed here... I was driving a friend through town who was brand new, from India, and he was saying "There's an Indian"... "there's another Indian!" ... at Target in downtown WC, he noticed several Indian families who were speaking his native tongue... (Tamil) I told him I'd introduce him to them, and he almost died at the thought. Quite cute.
ReplyDeleteOn the flip side, Rich, ever notice how many TV stations send typically black reporters to black areas - Hunter's Point, Oakland, inner city protest scenes, riots, etc.??
Downtoen WC is easier to get to than Todos Santos Plaza.
Besides, The Creek is was more diverse than KGO radio ever was!! I got their mailer once, and it looked like a WHITE CHRISTMAS!! ... of coarse, Swanson & Luckoff had Taliaferro in the middle of the night, and then, yup, a black reporter for Oakland... Greg Jarret? ... There were 2 Gregs... anyway, I did love the job he did, and his voice.
Cheers.
Please tell me that youre going to keep this up! Its so good and so important. I cant wait to read more from you. I just feel like you know so much and know how to make people listen to what you have to say. This blog is just too cool to be missed. Great stuff, really. Please, PLEASE keep it up!
ReplyDelete