WHEN THE FIRST WORD BROKE of the Sunday Evening Shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival I was in the car listening to KCBS --the all-news radio outlet is always my go-to in situations like mass shootings as was the case, un- fortunately, Sunday when initial reports indicated there was an ongoing incident, an "active shooting event" at the scene of the festival.At first, coverage was disjointed and confusing. Anchor Susan Kennedy seemed unprepared and kept repeating, "it's a fluid situation "--well yeah, it was but we received little information (if any) and the repetition was frustrating.
The incident happened at the worst possible time from a news standpoint, Sunday evening, a time when it's difficult to get reporters--TV or radio--to the scene in a relatively remote part of town, in this instance all the way down south to Gilroy, so I'll give KCBS some leeway here.
Once Southbay bureau chief, Mike Colgan, was on the scene; and so too reporter/anchor, Scott Lettieri, things got a whole lot more coherent and information gradually got out. We heard, via the AP and which KCBS reported that the initial info was "4 fatalities, including the suspected gunman, and several (15) injured" --in pure numbers, not anything like other, recent, mass shootings but the scope of it being in Gilroy at a big festival known nationally was tragic enough and demanded all the coverage it eventually received.
KCBS, obviously, like other outlets, stayed with the story throughout Sunday night into the wee hours on Monday. It wasn't the most spectacular coverage but given the changing events and limited info from the local law enforcement, it was good enough.
Gilroy 5:45 PM event Sunday wasn't even reported on CBS Overnight News (TV) on Monday morning (the next day)! CBS Overnight News is simply a rerun of 6 PM newscast the prior day. Lame and inexcusable.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of an incident back in '73 when every news team in San Diego rushed to the zoo to cover the birth of a panda. KVWN sent Veronica Corningstone to cover the live event. Unfortunately, in an attempt to sabotage her, a rival news anchor pushed Veronica into a Kodiak bear enclosure. Having no lead anchor, station director Ed Harken was forced to track down his former lead anchor Ron Burgundy to cover the event. Luckily, Ron and his action news team consisting of lead field reporter Brian Fantana, sportscaster Champ Kind, and weatherman Brick Tamland were able to make it to the zoo in time to not only save Veronica from the Kodiak bears but also to become the story and make national news!
DeleteI channel surfed as soon as accounts hit the airwaves. I started
ReplyDeletewith ABC-7. Dion Lim was woeful at the anchor desk. At one point, she said 100 million people attended the Garlic Festival
this weekend. I believe a more accurate estimation was 100,000.
She looked uncomfortable until Dan Ashley arrived. Sadly, this was her chance to climb the ladder, but she failed. KGO, however, had the best onsite interview during the entire evening when Luz Pena spoke to a teenage girl, obviously shaken, who made eye contact with one of the gunmen. She said he then was shot in the head by the police. Juliette Goodrich and Brian Hackney did a good job on KPIX, while Raj Mathai was solid when he eventually arrived. Unbelievably, KTVU stayed with Bob's Burgers for at least one hour into this breaking story. Even KRON was up and running on all cylinders before KTVU got around to reporting.
Dion Lim only got her spot because she's an ethnic minority and a female. You know, because there's so much "white privilege."
DeleteIf Dion Lim is at the anchor desk on Kgo 7, I change the channel unwatchable in my opinion.
DeleteI absolutely agree with 1:39 above. When I hear her voice it's instant channel change time.
DeleteI tried to change the channel several times, but the other channeDls were running other stuff or not available (UVerse). I thought Duin was better after awhile; I think she was upset over what she was covering.
DeleteI WOULD have had my television locked on KRON and KTVU in situations like this but oh wait...KRON is blacked out. So I was stuck with just KTVU.
ReplyDeleteSaying "KRON is "Blacked" out is insensitive and incorrect. In the future say not broadcasting.
Delete@10;05 AM You can get KPIX and KCRA (Sacto) live stream on your computer.
Delete"Blacked" out....insensitive? incorrect? OMG hate speech, get a grip snowflake
Delete@12:19 PM: Insensitive & incorrect to what!?? Goodness. Didn't know "blacked" is now a politically incorrect word. Does "dark-grayed" out sound more appropriate so as not to be insensitive & incorrect!?? KRON & KPIX ARE BLACKED OUT!
DeleteReally inept coverage on local TV of this tragedy. Circle 7 was nowhere close to prepared, KRON & KTVU were very late even showing up. KPIX isn't even worthy of comment. I will say KNTV was, by far, the best, but only because they bothered to cover it in full, and were easily first.
ReplyDeleteThey're literally down the road. Probably had a booth at the festival as well next to KRTY.
DeleteYes they were "easily first." Now get out a map and look at their location and you'll know why.
DeleteI had no plans to ever attend the Gilroy Garlic Festival, but it's one of those nice, family oriented things I like knowing still happens at all. Such a tragedy that some FOOL had to mess the memory of it up for so many people. I do hope they can recover and continue.
ReplyDeleteThat region is full of working class folks who deserve to enjoy a summer weekend outside w/o extreme stress and worry.
My prayers for the people of the Gilroy area. You have something very special going on. Do continue it if you can.
The Gunman was mentally ill, and should never have had access to guns in the first place. So we don't need any new rules.
I had gone to bed by the time the shooting happened, and only learned about it when I was watching the overnight news on ABC7 [World News Now]. Then, since I knew KRON came on at 4am, I turned to them at 4am and even Darya Folsom was already there then, which is unusual, since Robin Winston usually anchors until Darya gets there. But, from what I saw this morning, I think that KRON did the best job of reporting, with Will Tran being there constantly. He also was very knowledgeable about the event, since he lives down that way, and has attended the festival many times, so his reporting was pretty indepth.
ReplyDeleteWill is a pretty good reporter.
DeleteBetty Yu was her usual spectacular self, good job reporting.
ReplyDeleteIf there was a funny moment during this tragedy, it was when Brian Hackney was given the information that four people had been killed. He paused and said, "The bulletin, apparently official, is that four people were ... " That, of course, is the same phraseology Cronkite used when he announced Kennedy had died. I broke out laughing. Hackney knew what he was doing but still could defend himself if anybody complained by saying he said it with a straight face. Very sly.
ReplyDeleteWas surprised that KTVU and ABC7 has a difficult time deciding whether to do wall-to-wall coverage. At one point ABC7 was showing "America's Funniest Home Videos." Since so much of the coverage of this shooting involved videos people had posted on social media, it was like one channel had the funnest home videos and another channel had the saddest home videos.
One more thing -- you could tell that Audrey Cooper was on vacation at the Chronicle. The shootings were at the top of the front page, like they should be. Had she been working, the top story would have been a feature on a nail salon or a sob story about a transient who lost his dog, and the shooting would have been on A9.
"Had she been working, the top story would have been a feature on a nail salon or a sob story about a transient who lost his dog, and the shooting would have been on A9."
DeleteSo true.
Even the National News stations - MSNBC, Fox News (the one Sean Hannity is on), CNN and the local stations NBC (in San Jose), KPIX, KRON4, were all broadcasting the Gilroy shooting before KTVU began broadcasting it beginning at 9 PM.
ReplyDeleteI don't watch Kron4 as they are terrible.
Some idiot reporter on scene for KGO kept referring to "the Fairgrounds". Those are in San Jose you daft moo--the Garlic Festival is at Christmas Hill Park.
ReplyDeleteI'd point out this was a story that was breaking on Twitter, the first reports I saw of it came via the Fire Scanner listeners that post on Twitter. I believe FireContractor was the 1st person to have the info, that was within 2 mins of the shooting. Then many others to the online scanner and were getting the info. Falling on a Sunday night when many news crews are running thin and helicopters are not up in the area and Gilroy takes a while to get to the fist 30 mins to an hour were pretty much a Twitter breaking story.
ReplyDeleteAs for helicopters, very quickly on the scene were two, one from CalStar..life flight with female pilot and two trauma nurses. They were ultimately not needed, but responded quickly.
DeleteThe good, the bad, and the ugly. An NBC Bay Area reporter repeated a rumor from I believe a vendor - 8 people are dead. Someone else from NBC Bay Area said Marina Del Rey Police were reporting more than 50 injured. Kiet Do from KPIX asking someone if they were scared. Doh. Elizabeth Cook sounding clueless on the CBS App feed. And today? Other than KTVU and KRON, it appears that the other stations have not heard of the internet or Facebook to livestream news if they don't want to pre-empt regular programming. Oh yes, I forgot, the KGO TV assignment desk asking Marianne Favro from rival station if she was willing to call in for a live actuality. The state of journalism today.
ReplyDeleteWhat's a live actuality?
DeleteDumb name for talking about it on the air.
Delete11:08....what a thoughtful post... very kind not the snarky things people often post here. Thank you
ReplyDeleteI was our and like Rich, went for KCBS. When the inaccuracies of a "fluid" situation were apparent, I switched to KGO radio, hoping that like the good old days they would be a news station, bu Leo Laporte and tech talk prevailed. NBC11 seemed to be better reporting new developments up through the 10 PM press conference.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair to Dion Lim, she was having to talk and listen to some producer updating in her earpiece. With most news teams paired, I don't imagine this happens much anymore. Once Dan Ashley go here, she could absorb more while he was taking the lead. (William Hurt did his well in "Broadcast News", but he had Holly Hunter delivering the bite-size pieces to him)
Hackney was solid & professional. Especially given the fact he is from Gilroy & has, on more than one occasion, reflected the festival's significance to his childhood.
ReplyDeleteI was tuned in to PIX on Sunday evening. Hackney did a great job covering the breaking story from the news desk. I was impressed. The field reporting team was mixed but overall they did a nice job. Do was average. Walker had a strong interview with a witness who had a relative in the ER. I agree with the comment above that Yu was excellent. I also saw that CNN aired Yu which speaks for itself.
ReplyDeleteDisagree with KCBS' interview of Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. She isn't the congressperson for the area where the Garlic Festival is held. She propagandized for a couple of minutes against guns (um, it was an AK 47, not a gun, that was used). Then she has the gall to wrap up by saying, "Let's focus on the victims." Yeah, right.
ReplyDelete