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Car Chases: Breaking News or Breaking Entertainment?
Speaking of the recent rash of televised, live blogged and publicized car chases, the LA Times looks into the costs to policing agencies and the media that covers it. "When it comes to TV, what troubles me is that it's not breaking news they're reporting with a pursuit, it's more breaking entertainment," said radio traffic reporter Jeff Baugh of KNX-AM (1070) to the Times. "Whenever I cover a pursuit, I'm not so much concerned about the knucklehead running away from police. I'm concerned about the mom driving her three kids home from school and about to enter that intersection where the guy's going to run the light." The not-Chris Brown car chase--and the one that preceded it--cost police "tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars." KNBC, who generally does not air chases, regretted pushing off the news that night calling it a "wasted newscast."
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