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It might be breaking news, but you'll only see coverage of it this weekend during regularly-scheduled news broadcasts (screenshot).
This weekend, television coverage has been limited to the already limited scheduled news broadcasts on all the major network affiliates (CBS-2/KCAL-9, NBC-4, ABC-7, KTLA/The CW-5, KTTV/Fox-11). Opportunities to go live to share updates about evacuations, fire lines, school and road closures, and air quality have been missed in favor of airing national network sports events, sitcom reruns, and the ubiquitous infomercial. During a press conference held this morning by the Governor and other local officials, abc7 opted to cut their coverage at 11 a.m. while Supervisor Mike Antonovich addressed the media and public in order to air an episode of the tween-oriented musi-comedy Hannah Montana--a WTF? moment for the over 14 set, no doubt.
The lack of coverage has inspired ire among local bloggers and Twitter users, including Franklin Avenue. One of the voices of dissent belongs to long-time Los Angeles news anchor John Beard, who recently accepted a post in Buffalo, NY. He posted to his Twitter account early this morning the following two thoughts: "Will LA tv take another day off as fires thrtn hmes and lives? Does anybody in mgmnt have the guts to spnd $$ to give viewers critical info" and "Are LA TV Stations not doing live fire coverage (with lives at risk) because they spent so much on excessive Michael Jackson coverage?" Are they, indeed?
For live as-it-happens news your best bet is to tune into news radio, like KNX1070 either on the airwaves or online, a suggestion urged by the LAFD's Brian Humphrey too. Online media sources are also working hard this weekend to provide readers concerned about the Station Fire and its impact on the Los Angeles area with information.
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It is high time we had a 24-hour local news channel here in LA. An LA1 if you will.
I wrote about it: http://6od.tumblr.com/post/174941450/twitter-is-what-it-has-come-down-to
Great Post, Lindsay! I love that John Beard tweeted what is so painfully and repeatedly true of LA local news channels failure to actually cover relevant local news in favor of stereotypical freeway chases and celeb-sensationalism.
Jimmy, you are right. I would love to see some blend of pro-am journalism, perhaps a crowd-funded http://spot.us style or some form of Annenberg-funded local access news channel to fill the void and actually serve the public the news we need!
The worst is when stations have digital subchannels and never use them. Instead, 4.2 and 7.3 are just running weather on a loop. What happened to that vaunted "News Raw"? Couldn't afford to pay Makahlo Medina overtime? Even running video of the helicopter circling around and press conferences on a loop would be a better use than what they have going on now.
Even KFI and KNX threw out their weekend schedule in favor of fire coverage (with commercials, though).
Great post, Lindsay! The local TV affiliate coverage of the fires has, indeed, been abysmal. I've been using LAist as my first portal for updates and information on the fires.
I know its very frustrating! I noticed that yesterday and decided to compile all the live resources together, twitter me if you find more. @chamilyan
http://www.ucubd.com/?id=1434
Live Fire Coverage:
Local television news coverage has proven itself more and more worthless over the past couple decades. Sites like this one are about all I have to turn to for news that's both relevant and timely.
I must thank you, short of ABC new with its live feed from a helicopter yesterday for 9 hours straight (they did re fuel a few times) YOURS was the only place where I could get any near accurate information short of calling the forestry department itself. You are right, in general, news coverage of this fire was god awful1. I live in humboldt and my elderly parents had a home at the epicenter of the fire. I could not find my parents, I was desperate for any information your reporting was wonderful and the photos on your site, two of which showed my parents house in tact, was great relief.
Very true article. Where are our local news coverage? We could not sleep but our local TV station are covering golf and infomercials.
This is legitimate cause to challenge the licenses for these stations when renewal time comes along. The FCC issues broadcast licenses in the Public Interest, Convenience, and Necessity (PICON), and every station in L.A. has failed on that count this weekend.
Thank you for writing exactly what I've been thinking since Thursday night. The coverage has been horrible, and I've been complaining about it to my husband all weekend. We live in the San Gabriel Valley, and I could not believe the lack of information on local stations.
Even KCAL 9 let me down, and usually they are the station that drops everything to cover events like this.
Kudos to John Beard, one of LA's last true broadcast journalists.
Beard is one of the very few newspeople on LA TV that I respected and trusted in the last twenty years. His integrity in reporting the news, his gravitas in presenting serious information and the twinkle in his eye that allowed the viewer to understand that Beard was not a typical vacuous talking head are why I not only watched him report the news, but enjoyed watching him work.
Buffalo is fortunate to have him back, and I am sure he will be appreciated.
As we honour the Los Angeles County firefighters who died during the current Station Fire, let us also pay tribute to the two Buffalo firefighters (Lt. McCarthy and Firefighter Croom) who lost their lives in a building fire last week.
When I first heard that a fire started in La Cananda and they only covered Palos Verdes and Glendora's fire I thought there was a problem.
The Station fire as it is called is a major forest fire. What scares me is this fire keeps going from 0-5% containment.
There is no coverage whatsoever. The say 35000 acres have burned but I am looking at huge beautiful mountains go up in flames.
I watched 15 fire trucks from various counties lined up to go into the mountains to defend homes.
I get lost in the area they are going and i have lived here in Altadena for 18 years.
I am afraid that this fire is bigger than we are being told.
I agree with the article.
I also wonder why they don't include vacation homes in their count of destroyed homes. These 'cabins' are sometimes even permanent residences, and include all the conveniences. I shake with rage when I hear 'Three homes and thirty cabins destroyed'. Or worse, three homes, no cabins mentioned.
On my road alone, which has thirteen homes (cabins, whatever), eleven were destroyed. This still hasn't even made the news.
Jane
I agree with Jane.
And what about "mobile homes" and "manufactured homes?" It's the same sitch as with "cabins" except the reporters usually call them "trailers" or "outbuildings." Are these structures not homes to those who live in them?
I'd bet that a much lower % of trailer dwellers than "homeowners" defaulted on their mortgages or filed for bankruptcy during the current recession. Perhaps there is a certain sub-class of folks that prefers to honor their commitments, live within their means and not be a burden to society.
TV news also refers to communities of manufactured homes as "trailer parks." And you can almost hear the condescending tone in their voices.
While we're on the subject, I really hate it when reporters of the news editorialize. In their attempts to sound like Walter Cronkite, they use adjectives that inject their opinions into the story. One example is when a reporter tries to be descriptive of the video we are watching by saying "and _you can tell_ by her _nervous_ laugh that she is very scared of this fire."
I have witnessed several scenes of "live news" and later read or watched reports of same. In most cases, what the reporter says happened is not what I saw, and their takes on the inner feelings and thoughts of victims or others involved in these stories is not only irrelevant, but most likely wrong or misleading.
There is an excellent and amusing book that discusses the ignorance and indifference that is so common these days, in all fields of endeavor. It's called "Dumbth: The Lost Art of Thinking With 101 Ways to Reason Better & Improve Your Mind," by the late Steve Allen. It is worth at least reading a review of this book, although I found it oddly reassuring to read anecdotal evidence that Mr. Allen had many of the same pet peeves that I have.
Just the facts, Ma'm. I'll make up my own thought balloons.
I've been surprised by the poor local news coverage as well. I worked in local TV in Austin, and though we didn't usually face wildfires there, we did have a lot of severe weather. Our station always cut in to programming with updates - usually during commercial times, costing us valuable revenue. While LA stations wouldn't need to keep broadcasting throughout the day, they could certainly be using extended commercial breaks to do 2 or 3 minutes updates on the fire.