Local TV News
Topic 15 · 10 responses · archived october 2000
~joshd
Wed, Nov 13, 1996 (16:47)
seed
How bad is it? How can it get better?
10 new of
~joshd
Wed, Nov 13, 1996 (16:53)
#1
What's with all the "porn" stories on local news suddenly? Is it
sweeps time?
KXAN, I believe, is running "Generation X-Rated" features all week long.
No, I'm not making that up. And last night KVUE-24 ran a story about
a woman who was "terrorized" by someone who repeatedly dumped
pornographic material on her lawn. I thought the story had some merit,
but they couldn't have played it more cheesily if they'd tried. The
suspect works at a state agency and supposedly downloaded images from
the Net, then copied them using a machine at work. KVUE had speeded-up
reenactments of some faceless person making copies. It was about the
silliest thing I've seen in quite a while.
~terry
Wed, Nov 13, 1996 (19:58)
#2
I bounce back and forth between KVUE, KXAN and KEYE news. They all seem to be into a race as to who can have the sexiest doppler radar on the Internet. I keep telling them that one of them needs to align with the Spring for conferencing. I was even on the line with KTBC a little while ago who is about to launch their entry into the website sweepstakes.
~joshd
Thu, Nov 14, 1996 (15:57)
#3
I think KXAN has had a site for quite a while, tho I've never been. Anyone
else been there?
~terry
Thu, Nov 14, 1996 (16:43)
#4
Yes, I was introduced to it by Larry Brill. They pretty much took the lead from
their sister station in Dallas and are gradually taking over their own content
production.
~joshd
Thu, Nov 14, 1996 (22:21)
#5
So what do we think about KVUE's policy on crime coverage? (i.e., their
refusal to run with just any crime story; it has to meet one of six or
so criteria.)
~terry
Fri, Nov 15, 1996 (01:24)
#6
What are the criteria?
~jonl
Fri, Nov 15, 1996 (05:12)
#7
yeah, I second that...
~joshd
Tue, Nov 19, 1996 (21:57)
#8
Oooh, damn. I knew someone was going to ask that. I don't know all of
them.
One is "significant impact," which seems like their catch-all.
Another is "take action," or something.
One might be "threat to children."
You can tell I'm really up on this stuff. The GM of KVUE, who is a friend
of mine, tells me they're not really doing anything different from the
way they used to cover crime. They've always had criteria, he says, but
now they tell you what they are.
Not that I remember them, obviously.
~terry
Wed, Nov 20, 1996 (01:22)
#9
I would rank the tv stations local news coverage subjectively:
1. KEYE 7
2. KVUE 24
3. KXAN 36
4. KTBC 42
For national news:
1. ABC - KVUE 24
2. CBS - KEYE 7
3. PBS - KLRU 18
4. NBC - KXAN 36
5. FOX - KTBC 42
I hope I got all those affiliations right. How you others rank the local news?
How would you rank the local news websites?
~joshd
Wed, Dec 11, 1996 (14:35)
#10
OK, according to Dec. 10 American-Statesman, the five criteria KVUE uses for reporting crimes are:
Does the crime represent a threat to children?
Threat to public safety?
Significant impact on the community?
Will people need to take action?
Is there an aspect of crime prevention?
And now KEYE (the Fox affiliate) is running spot "editorials" questioning why KVUE didn't immediately report on a shooting in Zilker Park last week. KVUE responds that police assured them the crime didn't represent a threat to public safety, so they didn't go with it.