THERE'S a FOUR-ALARM fire near the northern end of Fisherman's Wharf--expectedly, it has dominated the news this Saturday morning and justifiably so --over 150 SFFD fire fighters are on the scene,
KCBS, for its part had reporter Tim Ryan on the scene and Ryan's breathless reports were long on drama and description but amazingly, stunningly, SHORT on facts and DETAILS!
What was the cause of the fire? It's early, yes, and we probably don't know or do the fire people have a preliminary cause? Ryan not only didn't say if there was a cause but didn't even ask--but there was more.
Ryan said there were no injuries. Great good to know but was he 100% certain? No because he was going off his own estimation, not the SFFD. These are fluid events, get it, but useful information is the best option and Ryan and anchor, Jennifer Hodges, failed miserably early on.
Hey, we should count our blessings that we have a live reporter nearby. Most of the country doesn't even have that "luxury" anymore. So, it isn't as if the glass is half full or half empty, we should just be glad we have a glass altogether, even if it is broken. And that, my friend, is the state of local radio in the USA.
ReplyDeleteSad news reporting from all the local radio and tv news. KCBS did start reporting early but not very good. ABC7 which is right down the street from the fire had clips that people tweeted. The other stations were not much better. Bay Area News Sucks...
ReplyDeleteThanks for all you do for the Bay Area Rich.
KRON is in the same building as ABC7.
DeleteFire departments *never* speculate on a cause, even "preliminary," numbnuts, whatever the hell that means. When I was a reporter we were told to never speculate on air. So he may have been in trouble if he had followed your intrepid jouranlistic advice. And he can spell third grade words, I bet.
ReplyDeleteReporters haven't learned how to report for decades now. They re-report stories written by others, publish press releases, or just make stories up. Facts and attributions haven't mattered for a very long time. This is what you get. I'm much more reliant on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook for news than "news" stations.
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