In a mostly feast-or-famine environment, reporter Chris Filippi of KCBS has been steady and solid on the possible BART strike story. Filippi's been on the scene since day one of the back-and-forth negotiations which have taken on a life of their own. But give him credit: unlike a lot of other breathless members of the local glee club, Filippi's methodical approach of providing information without sounding as if he was reporting the second coming was welcome and appreciated.
Granted, this is a difficult story to report because of the gag order both sides have stuck to; there's really been no official information or feel of how the negotiations were going until late Monday when the talks went past yet another BART union deadline--in fact, just plain common sense indicated that there was movement because both sides had much to lose in the event of a strike.
*As a reader pointed out, the "Breaking News"-fetish that permeates KTVU was evident with a "story" that was not a story at all Monday night...2, complete with sounder and graphic galore splashed a "Breaking... across its screen only for the viewer to see in fact that "Breaking" was no-breaking after all but a bank of microphones in front of an empty lectern. There was no breaking news.
*KCBS did a very good job as I pointed out. But their relentless plugging to listeners to send a text to the station to get back a text if the labor situation changed was over the top. I get it that it's important and a community service for commuters, especially, to have access to the latest info but KCBS went above and beyond in promoting its text deal after each and EVERY report.
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