Anybody who comes here knows that I've been a frequent critic of the NBC Bay Area, (KNTV) 'Investigative Unit'. Not the concept mind you; any decent local TV news operation that wants to do some grunt work like making sure politicians and city hall corruption are exposed is a valued commodity.Except that NBC Bay Area's group--a bloated 18-person staff led by reporter, Tony Kovaleski, hasn't uncovered any ground-breaking stories. Mostly, they've been on the receiving end of a massive, money-laded ad campaign with glossy radio/TV and print packages. Clear style over substance.
ON the other hand, we have the KGO-TV, (ABC7) 'I-Team', headed by Dan Noyes with a staff of one producer. Noyes even shoots his own stories.
Noyes is not flashy nor overly hot-headed although he sure as hell breaks stories and delivers some hard-hitting TV journalism.
In the first week of the on-going November sweeps, I-Team made mincemeat of the much-ballyhooed Investigative Unit. It wasn't even close.
**In the first week of the November book, Noyes I-Team cleaned their clock with exclusives:
- Dangers on SF streets for cyclists and how they screw up
- Plea deal in perhaps the biggest investment fraud in state history
- Cal binge-drinking soars and strains the county EMS system
Kovaleski uncovered a much-publicized "cancer station" on a local fire department station whose fighters have seen an unusually high amount of cancer cases inflict its officers; good work, but nothing even remotely close to the volume of stories put forth by I-Team.
'Investigate Unit' has great intentions and the bulk of its reporters do good work but from here, it's more glitzy than ritzy.
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