I feel compelled to point that it seems that for at least part of the weekend competing NPR stations in LA KPCC and KCRW were simulcasting. I had it on at 10 p.m. LA time Saturday night and KPCC's Larry Mantle was doing call-ins and trying to be the calming influence in this tragedy, although I expect that the non-white audience was more pissed that KCRW's Saturday night dance music shows weren't on.
On Mon, Jun 1, 2020, 9:52 PM Doug Eastick <east...@mcd.on.ca> wrote: > while my content of the US sh*tshow is largely coming from CNN and > MSNBC..... It is treasure posts like this from Kevin that make me continue > to appreciate TVorNotTV. > > > > On Mon, Jun 1, 2020 at 7:51 PM Kevin M. <drunkbastar...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> I hadn’t planned on watching the local news in LA, because I know they >> are all shite. I also know they slashed their operating budgets, they hired >> unqualified teenagers with bleached hair and tanned skin, and they focus on >> flash over substance, but it turned out my fiancée’s house was encircled by >> stores and businesses being looted, a curfew had been imposed, and I needed >> to know actual information pertinent to what was occurring literally on the >> doorstep. So I tuned in. Ugh. >> >> A note about the internet and social media and newspapers online: Nobody >> handled (or is handling, as this is ongoing) this crisis well. All are as >> guilty of the same crimes of ignorance and uninformed opinion as local TV >> news. One of the biggest struggles of this crisis is there is literally >> nobody to turn to for unbiased, factual, relevant, timely information. I’m >> not employing hyperbole here. There is nobody in Southern California with >> any sense of journalism who has either the intellect, the expertise, or the >> financial means to report on this story. Pointing a camera at something and >> saying “Hey! Look at that!” is not journalism. As much as the main focus of >> these protests are police failures, the failures of the press are certainly >> being brought front and center, as well. >> >> I’m going to single out one “reporter” (those are sarcastic air-quotes) >> named Brittney Hopper, but don’t assume she is the worst of the bunch. She >> is sadly typical of the crap I watched yesterday, and her specific form of >> crap is merely memorable in how truly bad she is at her job. I’m not saying >> she deserved to have rocks thrown at her in her newsvan last night in the >> CVS parking lot, but I’m not not saying that, either. >> >> Hopper was assigned to cover the protests in Long Beach. I’m not saying >> she was the wrong choice for the job, but if I was an assignment editor and >> I wanted someone who could gain the trust of the largely African American >> group of protestors, an eight pound blonde would not have been my first, >> second, or twenty-third choice. But one assumes the pickings are slim over >> at CBS2/KCAL9. A note for those not living in the LA area: Two rival TV >> stations share the same news team for budget reasons, and of course because >> we all know that fewer choices for news is always better (?!). So away >> Hopper went to Long Beach. >> >> Things started to get beyond her ability long before the looting started. >> Whether it was the guy on the street she chose to interview live without >> either she or a producer talking with him ahead of time, who said “I am a >> Marine Corps veteran, f*ck the police! F*ck the police! F*ck f*ck f*ck the >> f*cking police!” or the kid on the skateboard (guessing he was 12 or 13) >> who kept skating behind her with both middle fingers pointed in her >> direction, Hopper was out of her depth. She could not control a crowd of >> drunk lemmings, let alone deal with a protest filled with angry people. >> >> Then the looting started. >> >> Hopper was at The Pike, an outdoor shopping center not far from the Queen >> Mary. Now, I don’t mean to belittle the damage and loss of property >> suffered by property owners, because it is real and heartbreaking, but >> frankly every police chief and sheriff In Southern California has talked >> about little else in their largely unchallenged press conferences and >> interviews, so I’m going to assume that as a given and move on. Throughout >> the day and into the night, Hopper kept injecting herself into the story. >> She was experiencing this... it was all happening to her... it wasn’t about >> the protesters or the police or the citizens of the city, and it certainly >> wasn’t about George Floyd... it was about Brittney Hopper. At no point was >> this more evident than when she said on-air that what she was seeing was >> “like a war zone” or “like a third world country.” Maybe she has experience >> in war zones and developing nations, and kudos to her if she has, but The >> Pike in Long Beach has a Hooters and a Sunglasses Hut, so although there >> were some broken windows and other damage to property, the comparison seems >> at best insensitive to both the residents and the protesters. >> >> And so as the evening dragged on, and KCAL and KCBS cut from one bit of >> looting to another, no context, no substance, no coverage of the largely >> peaceful groups of protesters, Hopper ended up at a CVS pharmacy, where she >> was shocked, shocked she’ll tell you, to find no police presence. And as >> she was speculating about what might be going on inside the CVS, pointing >> out that there was no way she was going to venture inside because guessing >> about it live on-air was the more professional way to go, someone threw a >> rock at her windshield, an event so monumental to the life of Brittney >> Hopper that she posted it on her social media. >> >> If it seems as if I’m being unduly harsh towards Hopper, I probably am. >> As I said, everyone covering the story was as inept as she was. Over on >> ABC7, they got 45 seconds of footage of people running out of a store that >> they loved so much they showed it non stop for nearly two solid hours. And >> on NBC4, after having been shamed by Lebron James for not showing any of >> the peaceful protests, Robert Kovacik held up an iPad and showed seven >> seconds of a peaceful protest in Colorado. It was the protest where >> everyone stayed still and chanted “I can’t breathe” the entire length of >> time George Floyd was crushed to death by a police officer... very moving >> if you haven’t seen it. NBC4 couldn’t be bothered to upload the video; they >> just had a guy hold up his tablet for a few seconds to prove they weren’t >> just focused on the destruction... then they immediately returned to >> focusing on the destruction. >> >> I could lament that at a time when I needed to know what was going on, no >> news agency existed to inform me, but instead — and unlike Brittney Hopper >> — I choose to not make it about me. The changes that need to occur for >> everyone in our country need to begin with a substantive conversation. That >> means people skilled at asking questions and holding subjects accountable >> need to put people with opposing viewpoints in a room and get them talking, >> and the public needs to hear and react to those conversations, and from >> that public debate, new ideas and even new leaders can emerge. That’s how >> the change is going to happen. And that is exactly what we didn’t see on >> the news, and what we didn’t see online, either. >> -- >> Kevin M. 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