How big and tragic the overnight Oakland fire that took at least nine lives? (25 people are unaccounted for at press time) --even the BBC has coverage.UPDATE 1: An Alameda County Sheriff Dept. official told KTVU as many as 40-plus people could have perished.
Local TV coverage was highlighted by KTVU's Weekend "Mornings on Two" which correctly ditched its regular format and went to wall-to-wall coverage from 7: AM on through the morning.
Anchors Claudine Wong and Frank Mallicoat directed the on-going story from KTVU's Jack London Square studios only a few miles from the scene of the warehouse/loft fire.
Christien Kafton delivered spot-on reporting and provided excellent coverage as the story remained fluid and new information developed.
KRON too had comprehensive coverage with anchor, Marty Gonzalez in studio, and reporter, Averi Harper, direct from the scene.
Other stations broke in and out of network programming and stayed heavy on the Oakland fire situation.
UPDATE 2: --9: 18 AM PT
KTVU has switched away from college football to "KTVU Plus"; Amazingly, KPIX (CBS5) is asleep at the wheel: Pix is going with a canned program and ignores Oakland fire; KGO has gone to ABC college football game.
UPDATE 3--11: 31 AM PT
You can't make this up: The Bay Area's "News Station" (really?) has abated its coverage from the Oakland fire to "Bay Area Bargains." Just when I was complimenting KRON, this arrives...some other stations at least have an excuse to leave; network sports shows and the like. On the other hand, KRON's motto these days is that it's the "only" Bay Area station with 24/7 news. Except when that motto breaks the 50 bucks KRON gets airing cheesy infomercials.
Just ridiculous. Not surprising anymore, just ridiculous.
UPDATE 4: 2: 44 PM PT: All Bay Area TV News stations, plus CNN, FNC and MSNBC cover Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf Presser except the "News Station", KRON which is running "Dog Town USA.
No joke needed.
KRON is almost unwatchable with the huge and unending infomercials. Not the anchors fault.
ReplyDeleteKTVU's Wong has to get to the point. Long and rambling questions have left Christian asking "What are you asking?"
Mallicoat jumped in and explained.
Its a sad situation. An art event is what Oakland needs..and it ended this way.
Stan, we get it, KRON is unwatchable. So don't watch!
DeleteStan Dont watch
DeleteThe definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
DeleteI live in Sac. Non-existent coverage and not even a mention on CW 31 and KCRA - I got tired of happy talk so I switched to France 24 - saw a crawl about a California Rave - 9 missing - did a Google search, top results were news reports from BBC, Al Jezeera, Daily Mail --- then the Bay Area stories. Have been streaming KTVU live the last few minutes.
ReplyDeleteAny idea who broke this story and at what time? Did anyone report this live during the early morning (after midnight but before the morning news started)? Facebook shows that the first post came in at around 120-1230 am. Checking Twitter. Just kinda wondering how long it took our lame media to cover it. Also, is the video of the actual fire from a freelancer or KTVU itself?
ReplyDeleteFor push alerts, KRON4 posted first, at about 2:30am.
DeleteThis answer sounds like it came from a KRON employee. Unless you are a resident with every station mobile app on your phone.
DeleteAnonymous December 4, 2016 at 5:24 AM:
DeleteI am not a KRON employee and yes, I am a resident and have all local station mobile apps push alerts.
KTVU Plus Oakland fire coverage on 36-1 OTA now
ReplyDeleteSomebody slap me because I agree with Stan. KRON is horrible! The blonde anchor said the fire was on "Industrial" Avenue and Marty was making a big deal about Noel Gallo's complaints about debris on the side of the building in the past and how there may have been drug use going on inside. Pure speculation.
ReplyDeleteKRON has no respect for themselves anymore. Good riddance.
KRON.com reported it being 31st. all morning....
DeleteNoel Gallo, while everything he said was absolutely true, should learn to say less... he basically handed out paychecks for wrongful deaths via city taking too long to act on these kinds of illegal collectives.
DeleteI was watching since 6am this morning and our local coverage was awful. CNN was the first Network to get a live interview with the Fire Chef. Our local stations were caught with there hands in there pockets with no top reporters on the scene or top anchors on the air to report this tragedy. You have the Alameda County Sheriff saying it could be at least 50 dead and you wanna go to college foot ball…………please!
ReplyDeleteLocal news is a joke.
Deletethere, there now..for the ravers who don't need no stinking regulations....this is why you need building code and fire code regulations.
DeleteI watched Fox and CNN. Fox was actually first with the chief interview. CNN followed shortly later.
DeleteChef? Are you the guy in the Snickers commercial?
DeleteAgree. Local news was terrible at the start. Fox and CNN were leading the way. Local news was playing catch up. Now, I like NBC with Raj on the scene.
DeleteI monitored kcbs this morning and they hardly mentioned it at all. Kudos to ktvu for their coverage.
ReplyDeleteForget this morning, was any station on it last night? It broke out at 11:35pm...was there any coverage or did any station break in overnight? That would be coverage and doing a good job. Having it this morning during a regular newscast is expected.
ReplyDeleteNine people and counting..... wait wait, Bay Area Bargains on KRON.
ReplyDeleteIt is 11:00 am & still no coverage from KPIX Channel 5. KPIX Big Wigs Bruno & Dan should be ashamed of themselves for not even covering this major Bay Area news story instead showing a meaningless college basketball game. KTVU still has wall-to-wall coverage on their sister station KICU Channel 6--Kudos to them. Heartfelt condolences to the victims families, friends & loved ones of this terrible tragedy
ReplyDeleteReal journalism. Not from TV, Radio or the big print but the East Bay Express has it first - potential scumbag owner and some explaining from the city: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2016/12/03/building-engulfed-by-deadly-oakland-fire-had-pending-habitability-complaints
ReplyDeleteI've been watching KTVU's coverage for much of the morning. Overall it's okay. Frank Mallicoat brings solid journalistic skills. But Claudine Wong is spotty and lacks stability in a major breaking news event such as this. For example, an interview was conducted earlier with a person from the Alameda County Sheriff's Dept. She continuously interrupted him while he was giving important information and details of the tragedy. Very rude and unprofessional.
ReplyDeleteKRON was on it with Avrie Harper looking professional. Christan Kafton a star on KTVU. Leigh Martinez with a tough job with victim families nit looking too stellar but again she has a difficult assignment.
ReplyDeleteOne question... Where's OPD ? Yeah Johnna Watson spoke but AlaCo Sherrif seem to be in charge concerning the law enforcement aspect within the City or Oakland.
Alameda County has a Sheriff/Coroner Department, hence the deputy sheriff commenting on the situation.
DeleteAfter viewing KTVU's coverage for quite a while now, I'm thoroughly impressed with the reporting by Leigh Martinez. Despite this horrible incident, she has been able to hold it together with top-notch, first-rate reporting. I think she's destined for greater opportunities in her future career.
ReplyDeleteWhat is KRON supposed to do, Rich? Keep a live feed of a camera fixed on the firefighters standing on the adjacent roof for 4 hours? Sad story, tragic story, but does it really need minute by minute coverage? No other stations are covering every second of it...
ReplyDeleteActually KTVU is... and have brought in their "A-Team". This is exactly what their KTVU+ is designed for. KPIX COULD have gone to 44 and ABC7 COULD have gone to 20 also
Delete1:07, Didn't you know the rule at this blog is to ridicule KRON for anything and everything.
DeleteAlot of COULD haves. No real news until they start emptying the building.
Delete1:07P Agreed...Let be Fair
DeleteBTW... The Oakland Tribune ?!?!??? I've subscribed to the paper since I was 13 (Dad made me get my own LOL) and this paper is now dead to me. The website looks like an Angelfire site from 1996. The content is non-existent. The delivery drivers deliver my Sunday paper to the middle of the sidewalk (the only paper I get physically) for anyone to amble by pick up... today's coverage of an international story and they have scant coverage. While I can't stand the ultra left slant of the East Bay Express, they offer the BEST by far coverage of Oakland and (metro) East Bay issues. While "late" to the coverage today, they have MANY angles covered. I don't always agree with their story angles, BUT I do tip my hat to their coverage.
ReplyDeleteKPIX was an embarrassing no-show. Unbelievable. KTVU has been outstanding.
ReplyDeleteI would expect the oakland station, KTVU, to be at the forefront.
DeleteLoved ones waiting for answers? If your millinial isn't answering the phone or texts, that's on the little shit not the authorities!
ReplyDeleteThe infomercials are why I DO NOT watch KRON news.
ReplyDeleteFYI, NBC Bay Area has had good coverage going on now and they are playing a lot on the issue with the buildings living conditions.
Mr Ion is in for a world of hurt.
ReplyDeleteToo much coverage. Sorry to be contrary. Endless repetition of the same drivel is not news.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but I don't think TV stations are just catering to you, the reason the are repetitive is because the know people turn on the news at different times. Not everyone is glued to the TV all night, some people come home late, perhaps work late, or went out for dinner. Try to think outside your own little world.
DeleteAgreed. It's just a statistic to me, anyway, since I didn't know anyone there. It's too bad it happened, though.
DeleteThe Purple Parrot Predicts!
ReplyDeleteBefore Tuesday, Dec. 6. 16 is over, you will hear BLM, Anarchist and other Progressive groups complaining that this tragic Oakland Fire is only getting so much coverage because most the people who died were white. This WILL happen. There are a lot of heartless progressives out there, who think the world has a finite amount of
love and compassion. They are taught this garbage in schools!
What got me is it broke out at 11:35 LAST NIGHT and 24 hours later the banners on all the stations still read "Breaking News."
DeleteSeriously?
There was a time when even delaying a decision to take over the air on such a story would have been career-ending at a station. That, of course, was when at least a bare minimum level of people were on duty.
ReplyDeleteI've been away all day Saturday only to hear/see about this fire/tragedy in Oakland. From a TV perspective, what I was finding confusing & curious are all the weekday morning & evening anchors working the Saturday 11 p.m. news. My first thought was they probably got Thanksgiving day off, but had to make up the time by working tonight (Saturday 12/3/16). Even though this Oakland fire is big news, I'm still surprised to see KTVU, KNTV, KRON, KPIX, & KGO all bringing in the weekday anchor/reporter support. Did one station do it first and all the other stations copied? Is this standard news protocol for staffing? Just curious.
ReplyDeleteThis appears to be a case where somebody with enough money and the right connections was allowed to operate without bringing his building up to code. That means due diligence has not been followed over a period of many years. This equals criminal negligence. Those lawsuits of liability? They will be a-flyin!
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm glad SOMEONE was running Dog Town USA! That's a good show!
ReplyDelete